A group of 18 Polish citizens who crossed from the Gaza Strip into Egypt on Sunday have taken off en route back to Poland, the General Staff of the Polish Army announced on Monday.

Shortly after 11am, the General Staff wrote on X that two Polish Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft had left Egypt carrying the evacuees as well as a miltary task force of the Polish Military Contingent in Egypt.

At least another seven Poles are believed to still be trapped in Gaza, one of whom, Alex Danzig, is reportedly being held hostage by Hamas.

“We are waiting for other persons to arrive through the Rafah crossing,” Jacek Siewiera, head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), told the Polsat News private television programme on Sunday. “Conditions are very difficult.”