Foreign Office strengthens Israel travel advice
James ChappleThe Foreign Office (FCDO) has strengthened its travel advice on Israel to advise against all but essential travel to the country.
It comes as Israeli and Palestinian forces continued to exchange rocket fire over the weekend; more than 100 people are understood to have died since tensions escalated last week, while thousands have been injured, the BBC reports.
Last week, both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways suspended flights to Tel Aviv.
The FCDO updated its travel advice on Friday (14 May) to advise against all but essential travel to the remainder of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories "based on the current assessment of security and COVID-19 risks".
It was already advising against travel to Gaza, Sheba’a Farms and Ghajjar, and areas along the Lebanese and Syrian borders.
The move comes despite Israel being placed on the UK government’s Covid travel green list, meaning arrivals from Israel will not have to quarantine when they head to, or return to, the UK.
It highlights the disparity between FCDO advice, which assesses all the risks travellers could face in a specific country, and the government’s traffic light system, which assesses the risk of travel to a country based on four key metrics relating to Covid-19.
"The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to Israel and the OPTs," said the FCDO. "Because of the current security situation, airlines may cancel flights at short notice, so British nationals may be unable leave Israel if they need to.
"Due to ongoing rocket fire and missile interceptions in the vicinity of Ben Gurion International airport, a number of flights have been redirected to Ramon Airport.
"Some flights operated by Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways and Virgin have been cancelled. Check with your travel company for the latest information."
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