More than 300 Dutch citizens have arrived in Syria in buses from Lebanon on Monday morning, Radio Netherlands reported.

The buses will head for Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria, and Dutch air force planes have been ordered to fly there to collect the Dutch expatriates.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry estimated that at least three planes will be required to repatriate all the Dutch citizens in Aleppo. If everything goes well, the first returnees will get to the Netherlands by Monday evening.

Hundreds of Dutch citizens are still staying behind in Lebanon. The foreign ministry is currently making arrangements for them to be evacuated later if necessary.

The evacuation followed days of Israeli air attacks and shelling on targets across Lebanon, which started last Wednesday in response to rocket attacks on Israel by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Several other countries have begun similar evacuation operations. Dutch airline KLM has suspended all flights to and from Beirut until further notice.

The Dutch ambassador to Lebanon has been called back from his vacation to assist in the evacuation of Dutch nationals.

There are currently some 700 Dutch nationals in Lebanon, according to the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Five hundred of them live in the country, while 200 are there on business or holidays. A number of them left for Syria on their own.

Source: Xinhua