Israelis abroad were urged to carefully monitor surroundings when in areas identified with Israel or Judaism and not to enter into areas known for hostility toward Israelis and Jews.

By TPS

Israel has warned its citizens who are at this moment outside the country to be careful of possible Iranian terror attacks.

Israel and the US began striking Iran on Saturday, with smoke seen over Tehran.

In a statement from Israel’s National Security Council, Israelis now outside the country were warned that, “The escalation with Iran increases the likelihood that the Iranian regime will intensify efforts to carry out terrorist attacks abroad against Israeli/Jewish targets, starting immediately,” it said.

“In addition, and based on past experience, the motivation to harm Israelis abroad may also increase among other terrorist elements, alongside local initiatives (including lone attackers).”

Among the warnings issued to Israelis was to avoid sharing travel details on social media and not to attend events identified with Israel or Judaism that are not secured.

Israelis abroad were urged to carefully monitor surroundings when in areas identified with Israel or Judaism and not to enter into areas known for hostility toward Israelis and Jews.

Additionally, Israel’s National Information System released an extended statement today at 12:45 pm.

“The State of Israel and the United States launched a powerful joint operation this morning to carry out a preemptive strike against Iran, with the aim of fundamentally harming the terrorist regime in Tehran and removing the existential threat to the State of Israel,” according to the statement.

“We will not allow a regime that has been shouting ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America’ for 47 years, which has shed the blood of Israelis and Americans, which has slaughtered its own people who aspire to freedom and justice, to possess nuclear weapons and threaten all of humanity.”

Later, the statement noted, “The alliance and partnership between Israel and the United States are stronger than ever and stand on shared values and an uncompromising pursuit of security and peace for both countries and the entire free world. We thank US President Donald Trump for his historic leadership at this time.”

“The operation is against the terrorist regime in Tehran and not against the Iranian people who strive for freedom and justice in the face of murderous tyranny.”

The statement also announced, “In light of the security situation, the airspace of the State of Israel is closed to aircraft traffic. Citizens are advised to avoid non-essential travel on the roads.”

In closing, the statement repeated a slogan heard often in Israel since the October 7, 2023 war began.

“Together we will win!”

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High-income, educated Israelis are the most likely to consider emigration from the Jewish state.

By World Israel News Staff

A significant number of Israelis — both Jewish and Arab — are considering emigrating abroad, according to a new survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI).

The poll, which surveyed roughly 900 Israelis, found that a substantial portion of respondents would consider moving elsewhere.

Overall, 26 percent of Jewish Israelis and 30 percent of Arab Israelis said they were thinking about leaving the country.

Notably, most respondents who expressed interest in emigrating did not cite any specific concern driving their considerations.

The majority of respondents simply said they wanted to leave without pointing to a defined motivating factor.

The survey was conducted in April, before the 12-day Iran war and the October ceasefire with Hamas.

Among Jewish respondents, those who identified as more left-wing and secular were significantly more likely to say they were willing to leave than those who considered themselves right-wing and religious.

The trend was especially stark among secular, high-income Jewish Israelis who already hold a second citizenship. In this group, an extraordinary 80 percent said they would consider moving abroad.

IDI’s data shows that the inclination to leave Israel rises with higher levels of income and education — and this pattern appears among both Jews and Arabs. Middle-income to high-income Israelis, especially those working in high-demand fields such as medicine, finance, and the tech industry, were the most likely of all participants to say they were weighing a move abroad.

When asked how they viewed Israel’s current situation, 42 percent of Jewish Israelis said they considered the country’s state to be “bad,” compared to 33 percent of Arab Israelis who expressed that view.

The most popular destination for Israelis considering emigration was the European Union, with 42 percent naming Europe as their top choice.

This may be due in part to the large number of Israelis who already possess Portuguese or Spanish passports through their Sephardic heritage, as well as descendants of Holocaust survivors who are often entitled to citizenship in countries from which their ancestors fled, such as Germany and Poland.

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Over 75% of Jewish Israelis say recent antisemitic incidents abroad have reshaped their travel plans.

By World Israel News Staff

The majority of Israelis are taking global hostility toward the Jewish state into account when making travel plans abroad, according to a new survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute.

The poll, which surveyed around 750 Israeli adults — most of whom identified as Jewish — revealed that rising concerns about antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in foreign countries are significantly influencing Israelis’ decisions about where to travel.

More than three-quarters of Jewish Israelis — 76 percent — said that reports about antisemitic incidents abroad had affected their travel plans that were already in place.

Among those with existing reservations, 54.5 percent said they had switched their destination country after learning of an antisemitic event in their original location.

Additionally, 21.5 percent of respondents said they had canceled their trips entirely due to concerns about growing antisemitism overseas.

Almost 40 percent of Israelis said that they take antisemitic incidents into consideration when selecting a destination.

Nearly 20 percent cited increasing anti-Israel hostility as a reason they would not travel abroad in the immediate future.

Notably, the survey found that Arab Israelis are also concerned about encountering anti-Israel sentiment when traveling abroad.

Among survey participants who identified themselves as being of Arab ethnicity, around 40 percent said they are currently avoiding international trips.

An additional 26.5 percent of Arab Israelis with preexisting travel plans had changed their destination country due to anti-Israel sentiment.

The survey was conducted by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, under the direction of Dr. Tamar Hermann.

Polling was carried out between July 27 and 31, 2025, among a representative sample of 601 Jewish respondents and 152 Arab respondents. The maximum sampling error is ±3.57 percent.

Since the outbreak of the war following the October 7 attacks, numerous international carriers have stopped flying to Israel.

While some carriers returned, the Israel-Iran conflict in June saw the number of airlines servicing Israel dramatically reduced.

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Tens of thousands of Israelis were stranded for days as the war with Iran shut down Israeli airspace and Ben Gurion Airport, with no clear idea of when they could return home.

By Amelie Botbol, JNS

Amid Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” against Iranian nuclear and military targets, and Tehran’s retaliatory missile attacks on civilians, airlines cancelled or diverted flights, leaving up to 150,000 Israelis stranded far from home.

Stuck in an everlasting vacation and trapped in a cycle of worry and anxiety, some 70,000 Israelis managed to return home via air, sea or land.

More than half went through land crossings with Jordan and Egypt, including Lilach, a mother of two young children from Rosh Haayin in central Israel, who found herself stuck in Paris and had to make her way home via Jordan.

Lilach traveled to France on June 12, leaving her children with her husband for the first time since they were born to visit family in Paris together with her father. She was expecting to return home on Sunday, three days later.

On Friday, she woke to reports that Israel had launched preemptive strikes on Iran.

“When I heard the reports, I was happy and proud. For Israel to reach such capabilities and neutralize the Iranian enemy is something that every Israeli wants. I woke my father up,” she recalled.

“We began to understand that they were closing Israel’s airspace, but I believed that by Sunday, it would reopen,” Lilach told JNS.

Lilach’s husband, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command, told her that he had to report for duty and was leaving the children with his parents.

Lilach’s Sunday flight was canceled. “We started thinking of alternatives. There were talks about rescue flights. I looked into what happened on Oct. 7 and saw that after three or four days, there were flights. I told myself it wouldn’t be long,” she said, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I started messaging groups of Israelis stuck in France and understood that there were a lot of us. Rescue flights started, but not all were leaving from France. I found myself in a situation in which my children were without their parents in a time of war. I was sure this would bring me to the top of a priority list and I would be the first one to get on a flight. This didn’t happen,” she added.

On Saturday, after almost a week, Lilach and her father flew to Paphos, Cyprus. The next day, they intended to fly to Aqaba, Jordan, and cross into Israel by land.

“Our Aqaba flight was delayed. Five flights from Larnaca to Israel were canceled on the same day. The airport was packed with Israelis who sat on the floor complaining about their canceled flights,” she said.

“Eventually, we succeeded in getting to Aqaba and crossed over. I almost kissed the floor. I could not believe it was actually happening. I saw the Israeli flag, I saw the soldiers and I started to cry, after 10 days of holding myself back,” she continued.

When she arrived home, Lilach met her husband, who was home from the army.

“I looked at my kids and I tried to understand how I found myself in a situation where for a week I didn’t see them, when before the longest we had been separated was half a day. Two days of travel felt like 40 years in the desert,” she told JNS.

“Young children who grew up in Israel in the last few years are very strong. They are used to air raid sirens. My children were in good hands with the family and close to a safe room,” she continued.

“Since Oct. 7, we have witnessed the most terrible events, yet I still feel a lot safer in Israel even at a time when missiles are targeting us,” she added.

“We found ourselves in a situation where the state couldn’t help, or they took it too lightly. I don’t want to criticize anyone because the security of the citizens who were targeted by Iranian missiles mattered most,” she said.

“Still, we got to a situation where every citizen had to care for himself, the options were to either take a risk and come through an enemy country or find yourself in limbo,” she continued.

Orna and Haim, a married couple from Beit She’an in the Jordan Valley, left almost two weeks ago for what they thought was going to be a peaceful holiday in Corfu, Greece, to celebrate Haim’s birthday.

“We arrived on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, when I realized that war with Iran had started and the skies were closed, our vacation ended,” Orna told JNS.

“We have family in Israel, children, grandchildren, friends, as well as my 83-year-old mother, who I care for. From that moment, I couldn’t enjoy it,” she added.

“My kids told me to relax and enjoy, that it’s better this way—but your heart is with your country and your children. You can’t be calm, even if you are in the most beautiful place in the world. You experience what they experience. With every alarm, your heart jumps, there is panic, fear and worry,” she continued.

Orna and Haim have four children and eight grandchildren, who live in the center of Israel and who do not all have safe rooms and shelters nearby.

“You worry that everyone finds a safe place, and it’s very hard. When I was a little girl in the ’70s, we were bombarded with lots of missiles from Jordan. I lived in Beit She’an and seeing videos of the Iranian missiles brought me back to my childhood,” she said.

On Saturday, an Iranian drone hit a site in Beit She’an 20 meters from where Orna used to live as a child.

“It brought me back. I was terrified, I started crying, I called home to make sure everyone was okay. Miraculously, there was only property damage,” she said.

As for her return to Israel, Orna said she was confronted with a lot of uncertainty.

“You try to get answers from the airline and there is no response. They tell you that you need to care for yourself, find yourself a flight because they can’t do anything. You feel helpless because from Corfu there were no flights to Israel,” she said.

Orna’s children brainstormed and decided to get her and her husband to Eastern Europe and from there back to Israel.

“We hope everything will go as planned and we will return next week. The prices of the flights are astronomical, a vacation which was supposed to cost 6,000 shekels ($1,765) cost me six times as much. You have to pay for hotel, food, transportation,” she said.

“I have a cosmetics clinic and I am turning down clients right now. My clinic specializes in relaxing treatments using oils, and a lot of clients wanted to come. My husband also works as a taxi driver,” she added.

From encounters with people who did not understand that Israel was confronting an existential threat, to her husband dealing with a fever for four days, Orna’s journey abroad was strewn with pitfalls, but also lit with the kindness of Israelis she met on the way.

“A lot of Israelis who live abroad opened their hearts and their houses to us. One of them, Nehoray, rented us his apartment in Corfu,” she said.

“The people of Israel are unique and special and that’s how we survive persecution and hardships. We will be strong and the people of Israel will live,” she said.

The post ‘Like 40 years in the desert’: The tribulations of stranded Israelis appeared first on World Israel News.

As part of Operation “Safe Return,” over 1,500 Israelis arrived safely at Ashdod Port from Cyprus aboard a Navy-escorted passenger ship, greeted by Home Front Command teams for swift transport back home.

The IDF Home Front Command Alon HQ has launched Operation “Safe Return,” staffing a 24/6 hotline for Israelis abroad seeking to return home. Prioritization for urgent cases.

The center will operate Sunday – Thursday, 24 hours a day, and on Fridays until 13:00 and in emergency… pic.twitter.com/ztyrOsSgjh

— Jewish News Syndicate (@JNS_org) June 19, 2025

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El Al announced it will operate rescue flights from Larnaca, Athens, Rome, Milan, and Paris, prioritizing passengers based on their original cancellation dates and humanitarian cases.

By Jewish Breaking News

Captain Nechama Spiegel pushed back from Larnaca International Airport Wednesday morning with a plane full of stranded Israelis, marking both El Al’s first repatriation flight since direct war between Israel and Iran broke out, and another milestone in her own groundbreaking career.

The flight to Ben Gurion Airport was part of the Ministry of Transportation’s plan to bring home stranded Israelis whose flights were canceled during Israel’s direct war with Iran.

But for the passengers aboard, their captain represented something unprecedented in Israeli aviation.

Spiegel, a mother of seven from Beit Shemesh, has been quietly making history at El Al since completing the airline’s rigorous training program.

The 30-something pilot grew up in Jerusalem’s Beit Yaakov school system, where aviation careers aren’t exactly on the curriculum.

At 20, Spiegel caught the aviation bug and started taking flight lessons in the United States. Unlike most Israeli pilots who log their hours in the Air Force, she had to find another path.

Every year, she flew back to America to build up the flight time El Al required for admission to its pilot program.

The religious restrictions she observes, including shomer negiah, which prohibits physical contact between men and women, added another layer of complexity to working in the traditionally male-dominated cockpit environment.

But that wouldn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams, and she continued her years of accumulating hours and meeting requirements while proudly maintaining her religious observance until El Al accepted her in 2015.

Eventually earning her captain’s stripes, in 2017, Spiegel made headlines when she piloted Prime Minister Netanyahu to a summit in Greece, marking the first time an Israeli prime minister had been flown by an ultra-Orthodox female pilot.

On Tuesday, El Al announced it will operate rescue flights from Larnaca, Athens, Rome, Milan, and Paris, prioritizing passengers based on their original cancellation dates and humanitarian cases.

The flights will be carried out gradually, subject to state approvals, with passengers receiving direct notification from the company. Other Israeli airlines are carrying out similar reparation missions. Read full story here.

The post After flying prime minister, El Al’s first Haredi female pilot now leads stranded Israelis back home appeared first on World Israel News.

Burned vehicle belonging to couple discovered after they were reported missing; their current whereabouts remain unknown.

By World Israel News Staff

Concern is mounting over the fate of an Israeli man and his girlfriend, following the discovery of their burned vehicle days after they were reported missing in the Philippines.

Yitzhak Cohen, 37, and his girlfriend Geneva Lopez, 27, have not been heard from since last Friday, June 21st.

The pair live in Angeles City, a major metropolitan area north of Manila in the Pampanga district.

Lopez’s sister, Joni, sounded the alarm regarding the couple’s disappearance, contacting police and stating that she had not heard from them for several days.

On Tuesday, the couple’s car was found on the outskirts of Angeles City. It appeared to have been set on fire and abandoned.

Documents found inside the vehicle which had survived the blaze confirmed that the car belonged to Lopez.

Family members told local media that in Lopez’s last communication with relatives, she said that she and Cohen were going to a nearby city to meet someone with whom they had done business in 2021.

Local media reports named that person as Michael Angelo Guiang, with whom the couple were reportedly going to discuss a property transaction.

Angeles City police chief Colonel Amado Mendoza told Filipino news outlet Rappler that the investigation into the couple’s disappearance is ongoing.

After footage of the car traveling down a major road was found, Mendoza said that the police are looking into more surveillance videos that can provide leads regarding the couple’s whereabouts.

“We are backtracking the CCTV footage. And whatever footage we get, we can enhance them to see the occupants” of the vehicle, he said.

Lopez, a Philippine national, is a professional model who last year competed in a local beauty contest for the title of Miss Pampanga.

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