Israel Police maritime officers rescue citizens returning to Jewish state

The Israel Police’s maritime unit rescued 10 Israelis trying to make their way home from Cyprus by sailboat on Sunday.

The mast of the vessel broke some five miles west of the port of Haifa, police said in a Hebrew-language statement, adding that all 10 passengers, including small children, made it to Israel “safe and sound.”

The rescue at sea came as air traffic was again briefly halted at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport amid renewed missile fire from Iran, preventing daily rescue flights for Israelis from landing there.

Approximately 20,000 of the 150,000 Israelis stranded abroad due to the war have returned home on repatriation flights over the past four days.

Since Israel’s June 13 preemptive strike on Iran, about 40,000 other citizens have arrived via land crossings despite security warnings against travel through Jordan and Egypt, and 6,500 by sea, according to Interior Ministry figures.

On Friday, the IDF facilitated the passage of a passenger ship making its way from the Port of Limassol in Cyprus to Ashdod Port with 1,500 Israelis on board, as part of the Ministry of Transport’s “Operation Safe Return.”

The previous day, the Israeli Navy rescued a vessel carrying 16 citizens, including 10 children, after it ran aground off Lebanon’s coast.

The Israel Defense Forces has begun operating the Ministry of Transport’s call center for citizens stranded abroad seeking to return home, the military announced on Thursday.

The Alon Headquarters in Ramla will place an emphasis on “managing exceptional cases requiring special prioritization” for returning to Israel amid the cancelation of regular flights, the IDF said.