Yesterday (Saturday night), the Turkish president announced that he was recalling the Turkish ambassador to Israel to Turkey following the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Erdogan's decision joins similar decisions by Colombia, Honduras and Chile, which also recalled their ambassadors from Israel.
Following the decision, we checked how many Israelis remained in Turkey and whether flights were still taking off from Israel to the country, which until two months ago was at the top of the departure table from Israel. The NSC has declared Turkey a dangerous destination and the travel warning for the country stands at Level 4, the highest.
Everything is in place
According to the Israel Airports Authority, there are currently no direct flights between Israel and Turkey. Turkish airlines, like most foreign airlines, canceled all their flights to Israel, and Israeli airlines flying to Turkey, El Al, Arkia and Israir also canceled direct routes to Turkey.
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Our examination with the Foreign Ministry shows that as of now, there are about 40 Israelis who remain in Turkey and are interested in returning to Israel. It is important to emphasize that there is a Jewish community, some of them made up of Israelis, who live in Turkey and are not among the 40 Israelis who responded to the Foreign Ministry questionnaire.
Currently, the only option to return from Turkey is to board a flight from Turkey to a destination from which there are direct flights to Israel and from there continue a direct flight to Israel. This is a more expensive process than a direct flight, but at the moment, as mentioned, it is the only option.
At the same time, we checked how many Israelis remained in Sinai despite the travel warning, here the number is higher and stands at almost 100. In this case, those Israelis can return to Israel through the land crossing, and here, too, all direct flights to Sharm el-Sheikh were canceled in the first days of the fighting.
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