Around 1,500 US citizens and their family members have departed from Israel on US government-chartered transport, a State Department spokesperson told CNN Tuesday, Ednews reports citing CNN.

“Since October 13, we have augmented the limited commercial flight availability by offering more than 5,000 seats on U.S. government-chartered transport by air and sea to U.S. citizens and their immediate family members,” the spokesperson said.

They added that “U.S. government-facilitated flights are scheduled to continue on a rolling basis from Ben Gurion International Airport through at least Sunday, October 22.”

“The departure options we have offered have generally departed at half capacity or less,” they said.

They said “thousands of U.S. citizens have reached out via our online form or via phone since October 7,” but “many have not sought to depart.”

“We have sent messages to every U.S. citizen who contacted us to inform them that we will provide detailed information to any U.S. citizen who indicates interest in departure assistance,” the spokesperson said.

“We are not in a position to share detailed breakdowns of the number of U.S. citizens seeking departure assistance, or the number of U.S. citizens whose departure we have facilitated, given this is an unfolding situation,” they added.