Source: Times of Israel

Hundreds of new immigrants from Ukraine arrive Sunday in largest one-day airlift

More than 2,000 refugees eligible for citizenship have reached Israel so far, with thousands more expected to come soon, including group rescued from besieged Sumy

By Judah Ari Gross 13 March 2022, 1:21 pmUpdated at 3:15 pm

Illustrative. Jewish immigrants fleeing the war in Ukraine arrive at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on March 6, 2022. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Over 600 new immigrants from Ukraine will land in Israel over the course of Sunday, the largest number since the start of the Russian invasion, the government said.

Russia’s ongoing offensive against Ukraine has prompted what is expected to be the largest wave of immigration to Israel, or aliyah, since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

As of Sunday morning, 2,007 new immigrants from Ukraine have landed in Israel since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24. In all of 2021, just over 3,100 people immigrated to Israel from Ukraine, making it one of the largest sources of new immigrants to Israel even before the war.

According to the Jewish Agency, which facilitates immigration to Israel, over 7,500 people in Ukraine have contacted the organization about moving to Israel in the immediate future, as of Sunday morning.

Government officials have estimated that tens of thousands of people will ultimately immigrate in light of the conflict, though it was not clear on what basis they made those assessments.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address

By signing up, you agree to the terms

The 614 immigrants scheduled to land Sunday arrived or were due to arrive on four flights. In the early hours of Sunday morning, 122 immigrants landed in Israel from Poland. Another 170 arrived from Moldova on Sunday afternoon, followed by another 162 set to arrive in the early evening from Poland and an additional 160 later Sunday night from Moldova, according to the Immigration and Absorption Ministry.

Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said her office was working in an “emergency configuration,” with employees working around the clock in order to receive the hundreds of immigrants entering the country each day.

“We are aware of the difficulties that the immigrants are grappling with. We are standing beside them and with them on every issue,” Tamano-Shata said.

The immigrants arriving to Israel are being housed temporarily at hotels that the ministry rented until longer-term housing can be arranged.

With the outbreak of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February, the Jewish Agency — along with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews — launched a major operation to facilitate the immigration of Ukrainian refugees who are eligible for Israeli citizenship either because they are Jewish or at least one of their grandparents is.

New immigrants fleeing the war in Ukraine arrive at Ben Gurion Airport on March 9, 2022 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Over the weekend, a group of some 140 Ukrainians eligible to immigrate to Israel were rescued from the beleaguered city of Sumy by the Jewish Agency and the United Israel Appeal. The refugees were ferried out of the city, which is under attack by Russian forces, and brought to the Moldovan border where they will await airlift to Israel.

Jewish Agency representatives and officials from other Israeli and Jewish organizations were dispatched to Ukraine’s borders to help prospective immigrants prepare their paperwork and await flights to Israel. Thousands of such refugees were being kept in hotel rooms and other makeshift housing arrangements until they could travel to Israel, the organization said.