The Japanese government says a Self-Defense Force aircraft evacuated 83 people from Israel on Thursday night, local time. They consist of 60 Japanese nationals and four non-Japanese family members, as well as 18 South Koreans and a non-South Korean family member.

The defense and foreign ministries say the KC-767 aerial refueling and transport aircraft made a stopover in Jordan, the eastern neighbor of Israel. They say it is expected to arrive at Tokyo's Haneda Airport as soon as early Saturday morning, Japan time.

This is the seventh time an SDF aircraft has evacuated Japanese and other citizens from countries outside Japan. The previous such operation took place in April, rescuing people from conflict-hit Sudan.

The Defense Ministry says two SDF C-2 transport aircraft are on standby -- one in Jordan and the other in the African country of Djibouti -- in case more Japanese and others need to be evacuated.

Last weekend, a South Korean military aircraft evacuated 51 Japanese citizens along with 163 South Koreans and six Singaporeans from Israel to a suburb of Seoul. A chartered plane arranged by the Japanese government also carried eight nationals from Tel Aviv to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Foreign Ministry says a total of about 900 Japanese nationals were in Israel and the Palestinian territories as of Thursday.