First evacuation flight takes off from Israel as Britons flee Middle East war zones

A mass evacuation has begun of British nationals from Israel and other Middle East war target zones, with the first flight leaving Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon.

- DAVID MADDOX, MILLIE COOKE

With more than 1,000 UK citizens trying to leave Israel amid tit-for-tat missile attacks with Iran - forcing the closure of civilian airspace - David Lammy confirmed that the government is scrambling military flights.

"This is an ongoing and fast-moving situation," the foreign secretary told the House of Commons. He said the government will keep advice "under close review and there may need to be further updates over the course of the next few days".

As the crisis deepened, with reports of Iranian retaliation for Donald Trump's attack on its nuclear facilities, an RAF aircraft carrying 63 British citizens took off for Cyprus. British nationals in Qatar were told to "shelter in place" as the fallout of the conflict spread and a US airbase in the country was targeted.

Among those caught in Israel is a UK citizen injured in the attacks by Iran, Mr Lammy told MPs as he reiterated UK support in principle for US efforts to stop Tehran's fundamentalist regime obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But with a new YouGov poll revealing that almost half of Britons (48 per cent) do not agree with Trump's B-2 stealth bomber raids compared to 22 per cent support, Mr Lammy also repeatedly refused to answer if he believed the US was acting within international law.