Flights to evacuate hundreds of Britons from Rhodes amid new fire alerts on Corfu
Flights have been arranged to get hundreds of Britons out of Rhodes, as thousands continue to flee wildfires on the Greek island – and new evacuations were announced on Corfu.
Tourists and residents huddled in schools and shelters on Sunday in Rhodes, with many evacuated on private boats from beaches as flames menaced resorts and coastal villages.
Scores of others were forced to spend the weekend sleeping rough, on beaches, pool sun loungers or on the streets.
A total of approximately 19,000 people have been rescued from the island, in one of the largest evacuations in Greek history.
Greece’s Emergency Communications Service has also now published evacuation orders for some areas of Corfu after wildfires were also reported there.
People in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies on the island have been told to leave on Sunday evening.
How the wildfire chaos in Rhodes unfolded – amid new alerts on Corfu
Tour operators Jet2, TUI and Correndon have cancelled flights leaving for Rhodes in the next few days.
Travel agent Thomas Cook cancelled some upcoming holidays and is offering other customers full refunds should they wish to cancel their trips.
While Easyjet has said it is laying on two repatriation flights from the island on Monday, in addition to the nine flights they already operate between the Rhodes and the UK – providing 421 extra seats to get people out.
The airline also pledged to run another repatriation flight back to the UK on Tuesday and promised to keep the situation under review.
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Why is Rhodes on fire?
No rain forecast after historic evacuation
The flames have left trees black and skeletal and the roads around the island littered with dead animals and near burnt-out cars.
Six people were briefly treated at a hospital for respiratory problems.
A person who fell and broke a leg during a hotel evacuation and a pregnant woman were taken to hospital. The pregnant woman is in good condition, authorities said.
Temperatures are expected to drop below 40C on the island tomorrow but remain in the high 30s.
There is no rain forecast in the next week.
The fire brigade said 19,000 people were moved from homes and hotels, calling it the biggest safe transport of residents and tourists Greece has ever carried out.
Read more:
What rights do holidaymakers have?
Satellite images show smoke from the fires
Evacuation ‘chaos’ amid ‘hotels on fire’
Speaking to Sky News at Rhodes Airport, tourist Tom Mitchell recounted how he and his friend Natalie Taylor were evacuated from their hotel.
He said: “We were at the hotel yesterday and there was lots of smoke. It got to one o’clock this morning and we had an evacuation notice come through on our phones to leave.
“It just felt like chaos really.”
Eventually, a coach arrived and took them to a school in the city.
He praised the locals for all the help offered to stranded tourists as he and Ms Taylor sat in the airport, waiting for their flight home.
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Tourists are ‘furious’ as they take shelter in Rhodes
Another tourist, Kevin Evans, said his wife and three young children – including a six-month-old baby – were evacuated twice on Saturday as the fire rapidly spread.
The family is now stranded in Rhodes Town without accommodation and “no information from the authorities”.
“We were originally in Kiotari in a villa but were moved to Gennadi,” he said.
“It got very crowded but we managed to get into a hotel in Gennadi with a room for the children and mums, while the rest of us slept in the lobby.
“As night fell, we could see the fire on the top of the hills in Kiotari.
“They said all the hotels were on fire.”
At about midnight, the fire started moving to their side of the hill, Mr Evans said, and alerts were going off again.
Another British family spent a night sleeping on the floor of a school after being evacuated from a wildfire on the Greek island of Rhodes.
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Schools are housing evacuated tourists
‘Island is functioning very well’
Coastguard vessels and private boats carried more than 3,000 tourists from beaches on Saturday after the wildfires, which have burned for nearly a week, rekindled in the southeast of Rhodes.
Other parts of Greece’s third most populated island were not affected.
Olga Kefalogianni, Greece’s tourism minister, told Sky News “overall, the island is functioning very well”.
He praised locals for showing “solidarity” with tourists affected by the fires.
Nevertheless, areas popular with many tourists were badly hit.
Many people fled hotels when huge flames reached the seaside villages of Kiotari, Gennadi, Pefki, Lindos, Lardos and Kalathos.
Crowds gathered in streets under an orange sky while smoke hung in the air.
In Lindos, famed for an acropolis on a massive rock within medieval walls, a blaze charred the hillside and buildings.
Thanasis Virinis, a vice mayor of Rhodes, told Mega television on Sunday that between 4,000 and 5,000 people were in temporary accommodation, calling for donations of essentials such as mattresses and bedclothes.
Among the nationalities of tourists affected on Rhodes were French, Dutch and Germans, as well as Britons.
One hotelier said the island can receive 150,000 visitors at a time in peak season. The resident population of the island is around 125,000.
Read more:
Fleeing fires ‘like the end of the world’
Evacuee ‘lost everything’
British family spent night on floor
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Flights from Rhodes land in Manchester
Tourists evacuate from Rhodes
Foreign Office Rapid Deployment Team sent to the island
As crowds filled Rhodes airport, the Greek foreign ministry said it was setting up a helpdesk for people who had lost travel documents.
Tour operator Jet2 said five planes due to take more tourists to the island would instead fly empty and take people home on their scheduled flights.
Air France-KLM said its daily flight from Rhodes was operating as normal.
Ryanair said its flights to and from the island were unaffected by the fire.
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Locals in Rhodes have seen their homes destroyed by wildfires
TUI said it cancelled all outbound flights to Rhodes up to and including Tuesday. “Customers currently in Rhodes will return on their intended flight home,” it said in a statement.
More than 250 firefighters, assisted by 18 aircraft, set up firebreaks to shield a dense forest and more residential areas.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We are actively monitoring the fires in Rhodes and are in close contact with local authorities.
“The FCDO has deployed a Rapid Deployment Team (RDT) of five FCDO staff and four British Red Cross responders to Rhodes to support British Nationals, whose safety is our top priority.
“They will be based at Rhodes International Airport to assist with travel documents and liaise with Greek authorities and travel operators on the ground.
“British nationals in Rhodes should contact their travel operator in the first instance for any queries regarding the rescheduling of flights and continue to check our updated gov.uk travel advice for information.”
US president-elect Donald Trump has suggested Israel and Hamas could agree a Gaza ceasefire by the end of the week.
Talks between Israeli and Hamas representatives resumed in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday, after US President Joe Biden indicated a deal to stop the fighting was “on the brink” on Monday.
A draft agreement has been sent to both sides. It includes provisions for the release of hostages and a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Qatar says Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” yet to a ceasefire deal.
Two Hamas officials said the group has accepted the draft agreement, with Israel still considering the deal.
An Israeli official said a deal is close but “we are not there” yet.
More than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Read more:
What’s in the proposed deal?
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on beachfront cafe in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Biden hails possibility of agreement
President Biden said it would include a hostage release deal and a “surge” of aid to Palestinians, in his final foreign policy speech as president.
“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said.
“The deal would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.”
Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting.
Analysis:
Deal might be close, but there are many unanswered questions
Pic: Reuters
Trump: ‘We’re very close’
President-elect Donald Trump has also discussed a possible peace deal during a phone interview with the Newsmax channel.
“We’re very close to getting it done and they have to get it done,” he said.
“If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble, like they have never seen before.
“And they will get it done. And I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place, it has to take place.”
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Donald Trump’s inauguration 2.0
Pic: AP
Israeli official: Former Hamas leader held up deal
Speaking on Tuesday as negotiations resumed in Qatar, an anonymous Israeli official said that an agreement was “close, but we are not there”.
They accused Hamas of previously “dictating, not negotiating” but said this has changed in the last few weeks.
“Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle for a deal,” they added.
Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks, led Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor but was himself killed in October last year.
Under Sinwar, the Israeli official claimed, Hamas was “not in a rush” to bring a hostage deal but this has changed since his death and since the IDF “started to dismantle the Shia axis”.
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Biden: ‘Never, never, never, ever give up’
Iran ‘weaker than it’s been in decades’
Yesterday, President Biden also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024.
“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” the president said.
Mr Biden claimed America’s adversaries were weaker than when he took office four years ago and that the US was “winning the worldwide competition”.
“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are
weaker,” he said.
“We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”
The US president is expected to give a farewell address on Wednesday.
A draft ceasefire deal on the table between Israel and Hamas would see 33 hostages set free and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from parts of Gaza.
President Joe Biden said an agreement to stop the fighting was “on the brink” and high level negotiations between the two sides resumed in Qatar on Tuesday.
The deal would see a number of things happen in a first stage, with negotiations for the second stage beginning in the third week of the ceasefire.
It would also allow a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of war.
Details of what the draft proposal entails have been emerging on Tuesday, reported by Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages hold photos of their loved ones during a protest on 8 January. Pic: AP
Hostages to be returned
In the first stage of the potential ceasefire, 33 hostages would be set free.
These include women (including female soldiers), children, men over the age of 50, wounded and sick.
Israel believes most of these hostages are alive but there has not been any official confirmation from Hamas.
In return for the release of the hostages, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
People serving long sentences for deadly attacks would be included in this but Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack would not be released.
An arrangement to prevent Palestinian “terrorists” from going back to the West Bank would be included in the deal, an anonymous Israeli official said.
Read more:
A timeline of events since the 7 October attacks
The hostages who still haven’t returned home
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
The agreement also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, with IDF troops remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.
Security arrangements would be implemented at the Philadelphi corridor – a narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Egypt and Gaza – with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would start to work gradually to allow the crossing of people who are sick and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza for treatment.
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to return to their homes, with a mechanism introduced to ensure no weapons are moved there.
“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all our hostages are back home,” the Israeli official said.
What will happen to Gaza in the future?
There is less detail about the future of Gaza – from how it will be governed, to any guarantees that this agreement will bring a permanent end to the war.
“The only thing that can answer for now is that we are ready for a ceasefire,” the Israeli official said.
“This is a long ceasefire and the deal that is being discussed right now is for a long one. There is a big price for releasing the hostages and we are ready to pay this price.”
The international community has said Gaza must be run by Palestinians, but there has not been a consensus about how this should be done – and the draft ceasefire agreement does not seem to address this either.
In the past, Israel has said it will not end the war leaving Hamas in power. It also previously rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governing powers in the West Bank, from taking over the administration of Gaza.
Since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has also said it would retain security control over the territory after the fighting ends.
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