Cyprus is ready to help with the evacuation of citizens of third countries who might want to leave Israel, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after an unexpected assault by Hamas militants on Israel over the weekend.

A Cypriot ministerial committee on Tuesday activated the repatriation scheme known as Estia, which offers temporary accommodation and assistance to European Union and third-country nationals fleeing areas of crisis.

"In this context, the Republic of Cyprus intends to offer facilities for the repatriation of foreign nationals from Israel through Cyprus," the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Eighty five citizens of Portugal and Spain arrived in Cyprus from Israel on the first evacuation flight early Tuesday on a Portuguese air force plane, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. A second flight was planned for later in the day.

Separately, several thousand Israelis living in Europe and elsewhere have been using Cyprus as a transit point to return to Israel since the crisis began on Saturday.

Thousands of westerners were evacuated through Cyprus during the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah in 2006. The island was also used as a transit point for the evacuation of mainly British nationals from Sudan earlier this year.