The government will ensure that the increased rate of immigration continues, Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said Sunday.
“I instructed the Ministerial Committee on Aliyah and Immigration to grant approvals in principle and not to delay anyone who wants to come to Israel,” she said. “I am currently in advanced negotiations with the ministers of finance and housing for the release of urgent housing budgets for the immigrants... I expect the arrival of between 6,000 and 10,000 new immigrants every month.”
Jewish Agency acting chairman Yaakov Hagoel on Sunday said the Jewish Agency had paid for 65 airplanes that flew Ukrainian Jews to Israel from neighboring countries to make aliyah.
“This is the biggest rescue operation in the last 30 years,” he said at a press conference, adding that “400 buses from Ukraine brought Jews from the country to neighboring countries.”
“The past week has seen a slowdown in the flow of refugees leaving Ukraine,” Hagoel said. “There is a fear of people leaving the country because of the massive shelling. We want to offer our help... We want Israelis who have family members in Ukraine to send us their information so we can approach them and assist them to leave the country. Whoever chooses to do so will also be able to immigrate to Israel. We think there are hundreds of thousands of relatives in Israel who can tell us about those Jews who are in Ukraine.”
Jewish Agency COO Yehuda Setton said: “I have spoken to 60 of the agency’s emissaries in Europe and asked them to go to the refugee centers in their cities to see if there are any Jews there who are interested in immigrating to Israel.”
More than 10,000 new immigrants have so far arrived in Israel as part of Operation Immigrants Come Home. More than 4,000 olim from Ukraine and bordering countries have chosen to stay in hotels rented for them by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry.
Employees of the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration at Ben-Gurion Airport welcomed 157 new immigrants over the weekend. Another 300 olim from Ukraine are expected to land on flights from Poland and Romania on Sunday.
In addition, there is a sharp increase in immigration from Russia. More than 10,000 Russians have filled out immigration application forms digitally, the Jewish Agency reported. Another 10,000 people from Ukraine and 500 people from Belarus are interested in immigrating, the Jewish Agency said.