Not only the sky is closed

How they try to enter and leave the country stuck in Israel

Talks about the possible attack of Israel against Iran began at the end of 2024, after the war between Israel and the Hezbollah Livans group closely connected with the Islamic Republic.

But the bombing of the IDF in June 2025 took on not only Tehran, but also many Israelis. More than 150 thousand citizens of Israel at this moment were abroad, a huge number of people gathered on vacation outside the country. The New Gazeta Europe tells how the Israelites are now trying to enter or leave the sheated cities.

They will not see their grandchildren

- my flight and arrival of my parents broke. The airline canceled the flights until September 15 inclusive, offered different options, I chose to return the money to a bank account. It is not known whether it will be possible to go on vacation when they fly, and suddenly other airlines will previously resume flights to Israel, ”says Tatyana , an employee of a beauty salon from Haifa.

Israel has peaceful agreements and economic interaction with neighboring Egypt and Jordan. Jordan, as an ally of the United States, knocks down missiles flying to Israel. But, as with other Muslim countries, relations are quite stretched.

With other neighbors, Lebanon and Syria, there are no peaceful contracts. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, the Israelis use precisely aviation to get to other countries. When the war with Iran began, Israel closed airports for civil flights.

- I planned a vacation, I thought that I had already calmed down more and less, we are not fighting with anyone. What are the emotions now? Parents are upset that they could not see their grandchildren, I hoped for their help, I was tuned to disconnect from children's affairs and fly to relax. My brother left Israel through the Airport of the Egyptian Sharm El Sheikh. He took the family to Nizhny Novgorod. The child was sent to some kind of children's camp there, and he will go to Israel again, again through Egypt, ”says Tatyana.

The Israeli needs a visa to Jordan, it can be issued right upon arrival at the airport of the capital of the state, Ampan. A visa is also needed in Egypt, but if a citizen intends to visit only the Sinai Peninsula-where in peacetime the Israelites love to relax due to cheapness, as well as in Sharm El Sheikh there is an international airport-a visa can be obtained according to a simplified procedure.

- A large number of people in Israel has dual citizenship. Having crossed the border by the Israeli passport, they can go to Egypt in European or Russian. From Tel Aviv, to the border crossing between Israel and Egypt, it is necessary to go 3.5–4.5 hours, almost all the time along the desert, where there are no shelters in case of shelling. The air defense will not even bring down the missile if it flys there [because it is considered an uninhabited area]. In my opinion, it is unsafe to go like that, ”says Vlad Holler , the author of the Telegram channel“ Politics/Israel ”.

Fly through the Arabs

Closing airports, the Israeli National Security Council issued a recommendation for Israel citizens to refrain from traveling through Egypt and Jordan. Due to the high level of anti-Israeli sentiments, these countries were given the fourth (out of four possible) levels of threat to visit.

The journalist of the newspaper Gaarets Lisa Rozovskaya told Novaya Gazeta Europe that she returned to Israel the other day through Jordania. She did not try to register for evacuation flights to Israel: there are monstrous queues and a certain set of criteria by which they determine the sequence of departure to Israel.

- I was traveling from Jordan with people who got into all kinds of roundabout ways.

The elderly couple, who flew from Greece to Naples, tried to sit on a flight in Sharm El Sheikh, but they were not allowed on the plane, saying that the Israelis in Egypt needed a visa.

Then they flew from Naples to London, and from London already to amman, and from Aman to Israel. People overpay for tickets a lot of money. Another family, which returned from Cyprus, bought tickets of $ 600 per person, which is irrelevant between the distance between Cyprus and Jordan. And someone took it for 700, ”says Rozovskaya.

There is transportation by sea with Cyprus, but the ships rarely go and float for almost a day.

- I entered Jordan on the Israeli passport. There were no problems except sirens [with missile shelling of Israel from Iran], which also sound in Jordan, but, unlike Israel, no one pays attention to them there. I flew in the evening, took off the hotel near the airport, because at night the checkpoint on the border was closed. I used the contacts of the verified [acquaintances] of the driver who brought me to the border, ”the journalist explains.

Natives of post -Soviet countries are more likely to leave Egypt: perhaps the habit of the resorts of Sinai, the best understanding of the situation there, compared to Jordan, affects. Groups and chats appeared in social networks, where people share the details of the transition of the Israeli-Egyptian border, and the phones of the proven Egyptian taxi drivers pass themselves.

The opinions of the Israelis were divided: there are enough radical patriots who believe that now it is impossible to leave the country.

“I recently left the Hebrew online lesson, because the teacher began to push the question that those who are now leaving Israel,-traitors to the motherland give me to earn to the vile Arabs, and said something else about predictions from Kabbalah,” says one of the interlocutors of Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Other Israelis relate to departure from a warring country with understanding.

- The Minister of Transport MIRI REGEV said that only tourists and diplomats will still fly out [through Israeli airports]. The Israelis, in order to fly out, must submit a request to a special commission that will decide whether to issue people or not. Military liable reservists, of course, do not need to be released. But children, women, old people why should they sit and wait for an Iranian rocket to fly to them?

My parents are 78 and 79 years old, they live in an old house [without a built -in armored room in an apartment] on the third floor without an elevator. They run two or three times a night in a bomb shelter to minus the first floor [in a common-house bomb shelter].

Why should they ask for the right to fly away? My daughter has panic attacks with each alarm. I, as a father, should leave her here or take it out? The war will end, and this injury will remain with her for life, ”says Holler.

Criticism from the opposition

The Israeli opposition parties are largely supported by the Bibi Netanyahu government in an attack on Iran, but the situation with the entrance and departure from the country is one of the objects of their criticism.

- Israel first encountered a threat level that required extreme measures. In particular, the complete closure of the airspace and the evacuation of almost all Israeli aircraft outside the country. It will be very, very difficult to return everyone to their homeland by air, this operation can stretch for several weeks. On the other hand, the scenario of the war with Iran and massive shelling was known in advance, and it was possible to prepare for it much better, ” Yevgeny Owl, the Vice Speaker of the Knesset from the Party of Israel and the head of the parliamentary lobby for the development of civil aviation, told Novaya Gazeta Europe.

The deputy from the Esh Atid party Tatyana Mazarskaya speaks of poor coordination in this issue in the government.

- The responsibility for the return of citizens was taken by the Ministry of Transport - not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as many expected. This decision caused a certain surprise and, unfortunately, led to delays in official communication: the first instructions for citizens were published on the Ministry of Transport only on June 19, six days after the start of the crisis. The actual evacuation management was transferred to the hands of commercial airlines that expected permits from the Ministry of Transport, and then, in turn, from security services. Only on June 18 it was possible to launch the first evacuation flights from Larnaki and Athens. The next day, directions from Rome, Paris and London were added to them, ”she says.

The situation with the entrance and departure to Israel is overgrown with curses: at first, the rabbis did not recommend evacuation flights to Israel on Saturdays, then, after mass criticism, softened their position.

The boat with the Israelis, who tried to swim home from Cyprus home, was nailed to the shores of a half -good Lebanon: the Israeli military rescued the sailors.

Evacuation flights are operated at the airports of Tel Aviv and Haifa. At the time of writing, the call center appeared on the issues of returning to Israel. Its operators responded only to Hebrew, although in Israel it is considered the norm that in state institutions a citizen can also respond to Arabic and English, and if possible in Russian, French and Ambar.

The New Gazeta Europe addressed the Ministry of Transport of Israel. At the time of publication of the text, there was no response to the appeal.