The 150 travelers, departing this morning on a special flight from Costa Rica, arrived from Honduras, Panama and other countries facing full closure

• // San Jose airport

This morning (Friday) Costa Rica took off El Al flight with about 150 Israelis traveling in various Central American countries. Among the countries from which Israeli travelers arrived on a flight that took off from Costa Rica: Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. It is important to note that most of these countries have already started taking steps towards full closure following the spread of the virus in the region.

Photo: Foreign Ministry spokeswomen

At the same time, another history was recorded in El Al, the first time the company landed in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. In recent weeks, EL AL aircraft have also landed for the first time in Peru and Australia. The flight to San Jose came at the request of the Foreign Ministry in light of Foreign Minister Israel Katz's directive, in order to help as many Israelis as possible return home.

Israeli Ambassador to Costa Rica, Amir Ofek: "This is a complex operation that included locating Israeli civilians, coordinating flights, land transfers from six different countries and Israelis' concentration for the Costa Rican flight. But as we kept telling everyone in the last few days: Until the plane doesn't take off, we're with you. "

Yesterday, hundreds of Israelis from several countries around the world were returned to Israel. More than 300 Israelis residing in India were reinstated on Air India flights, Arkia has returned about 150 Israelis arriving from Slovakia, Serbia and Hungary on a flight from Budapest, following cooperation from foreign and Chabad officials in Hungary.

Yesterday's interesting story came from Bolivia, from which 23 Israelis were rescued in a complex foreign ministry operation, which included a private jet that collected Israelis from five destinations and from there a flight by Bolivia's army to Brazil, from which Israelis will return to Israel on commercial flights.

Yesterday, Israelis from Colombia and Costa Rica were rescued by El Al, and from Rome by Bucharest by Israir. Today, Israeli rescue flights are expected from Kiev, Vilnius and Larnaka, and another rescue flight from Bucharest will depart tomorrow. To date, thousands of Israelis have been rescued from distant destinations including Peru, Australia, India and as mentioned, Colombia and Costa Rica. Several thousands of Israelis have also been rescued from various destinations across Europe, including those with a serious spread of the Corona virus, headed by Italy.