Airlift from Israel: Board gets South Africans home

As June 2025 came to an end, South Africans stuck in Israel due to the war who were desperate to get home, returned safely. South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) National Director Wendy Kahn looks back on her diary from the day Operation Rising Lion began, and can now heave a sigh of relief.

Friday 13 June

Iran-Israel conflict began. SAJBD convened a meeting of 54 communal leaders from around the country to discuss the consequences of the strikes for South African Jewry. One of the issues discussed was South Africans in Israel in light of the skies closing.

Saturday 14 June

The South African government issued a statement offering consular assistance to South Africans in Iran. No such offer was made to those in Israel, where civilians were being directly targeted by Iranian missiles.

Sunday 15 June

The SAJBD started receiving desperate calls from South Africans who urgently needed to return to South Africa. Emergency cases included people struggling financially; community members whose medications were running out; and a woman who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and wouldn’t be able to travel much longer.

Monday 16 June

We wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa raising the difficult circumstances of South Africans stranded in Israel and pointing out the hypocrisy of offering consular services for those in Iran but not in Israel.

Tuesday 17 June

The Presidency responded that the correspondence would be forwarded to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco). Two weeks later, Dirco is yet to respond.

Wednesday 18 June

The SAJBD’s leadership realised that when the skies reopened, especially for foreign carriers, there wouldn’t be capacity to bring home the large number of South African citizens that were continuously reaching out to the Board. We began to embark on a strategy to get additional flights to repatriate South African citizens.

I engaged extensively with fellow international Jewish communities to understand their preparations for repatriation, and the steps other governments were taking. We chose to abide by the Israeli recommendation not to recommend land routes through neighbouring countries.

Thursday 19 June

Given the close working relationship with Ethiopian Airlines borne out of similar repatriation efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to approach the airline for assistance.

Friday 20 June

The SAJBD together with travel agent Ingrid Zahavi approached Ethiopian Airlines, which immediately agreed to help, ensuring us that even if it needed to add flights, it would assist. It requested that we put together a list to understand how many needed to be accommodated.

We immediately posted on social media asking for people wanting to join flights to contact us. The link made it round our community and further.

Sunday 22 June

We engaged with youth groups, gap-year programmes – Bnei Akiva; Habonim; and Ohrsom – to include participants who wanted to return home. A list was finalised with well over 250 people. Those that could afford cruises or who were brave enough took land routes, the others waited anxiously for feedback.

Monday 23 June

Non-Jewish South Africans approached us to include them in repatriation flights. They had reached out to Dirco, and had received no response.

Wednesday 25 June

The skies started opening on a limited basis. A WhatsApp group was created to communicate with travellers in anticipation of Ethiopian Airlines resuming flights. Negotiations with the airline’s headquarters intensified to finalise logistics around flights.

Thursday 26 June

We advised our passengers, “On June 25, the first full day of reopening, only 12 000 passengers flew on 88 international flights – that’s just 20% of the usual traffic. The airport is slowly ramping up, and though Israeli airlines have increased their schedules, many foreign airlines are still waiting for clearance.

“Israel has suspended normal noise restrictions and curfews to allow round-the-clock flights, but foreign carriers, including Ethiopian Airlines, need special approval before resuming services. International safety agencies like EASA [the European Union Aviation Safety Agency] have issued warnings about missile threats, and some regulators, like Russia’s, are still restricting night flights.

“Ethiopian Airlines, which normally flies daily to Tel Aviv, suspended operations after the May missile strike, and hasn’t resumed services yet. It has formally applied to restart, and aims to resume flights by 30 June, but that depends on final Israeli clearances. In short: this isn’t a delay caused by the airlines. They are ready to fly, but the authorities are reopening very cautiously. It will take a few more days to normalise.”

Israel agreed that as soon as permissions were in place, it would accommodate those on our list.

Late into Thursday night, the Jewish Agency For Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked with us to ensure that Ethiopian Airlines repatriation flights be added before the official resumption on 1 July. Flights from 1 to 4 July were fully booked, and we had well over 200 passengers who would never be able to be accommodated on that schedule.

Friday 27 June

At 09:49, we received the go ahead for three additional Ethiopian Airlines flights: one on Saturday, two on Sunday. Our staff members called every person on our list to ensure that any person needing repatriation be booked on one of the flights. By 15:30, everyone had been sorted.

Saturday 28/29 June

Ethiopian Airlines flights brought more than 200 South African citizens home to their families, friends, doctors, workplaces, maternity hospitals, and universities.

One repatriated individual shared the profound anxiety experienced during this ordeal, describing a tumultuous period marked by uncertainty and the potentially daunting prospect of navigating escape routes through neighbouring countries. She described the period as a desperate rollercoaster of emotions, and said that psychologically speaking, knowing that the SAJBD was “looking after us and feeling that we were being heard and taken care of in our time of need was wonderful”.

1 July

Still no peep from Dirco.