Tens of thousands of Israelis found themselves unable to return to Israel on Saturday after Israel and the US launched a major joint military strike on Iran.

As Iran responded by firing missiles and drones, Israel closed its airspace until at least Monday, the Transportation Ministry said, making travel through Ben Gurion Airport and other flight hubs impossible.

Rescue flights are being planned for when Israel reopens its airspace, with El Al announcing it was putting a wide plan in place and saying that its own ticket holders will automatically be assigned seats.

Naomi Burnham, from Modi’in, had popped over to London last week with one of her four children to visit for six days with two of her kids, currently living in London, as well as her parents.

“Now we’re stuck here,” said Burnham, who is scheduled to fly back to Israel on Sunday afternoon with El Al. She spent hours on the phone Saturday with the airline, trying to link her booking with that of her son, who joined her at the last minute.

“It’s not unpleasant not to have to run to a bunker, but I want to be with my people,” said Burnham. Her son, fiancée and other family members who remained in Tel Aviv spent the day running back and forth to the bomb shelter, she said.

“It’s the anxiety of not being at home,” said Burnham. “It’s nerve-racking, and I don’t like being outside of Israel when this is going on.”

It is currently unknown how long the conflict will continue, or how long the airspace will remain closed. Travelers are advised to stay updated via the media and through their airlines regarding flight schedules once the airspace reopens,” the Transportation Ministry said in a statement.

Tens of thousands stranded

Approximately 74 incoming flights were canceled on Saturday, and another 191 on Sunday, carrying 42,000 passengers to Israel, according to a Foreign Ministry document. Of these, 35,000 are Israeli citizens.

Those numbers could balloon to 133,000 travelers, with 110,000 Israeli citizens, if the skies remain closed through Wednesday, the report estimated. In total, some 291,000 Israelis who left Israel during the past three months have not yet returned, it noted.

Meanwhile, more than 33,000 foreign tourists currently remain in the country, the report said.

In the hours immediately after the offensive was launched Saturday morning, approximately 2,100 passengers on 14 flights were diverted to alternative destinations while already in the air, according to a Foreign Ministry document. Flights from Wizz Air, flydubai, United, Delta and Azerbaijan Airlines were diverted to Athens, Larnaca, New York, Baku and Rome, the document said.

Some 140 new immigrants who were planning to arrive in Israel in the coming days were forced to delay their flights, the Immigration and Absorption Ministry said in a statement.

Travel recommendations

“As of now, we’re just telling people to stay calm, stay in touch, and follow the news,” said Mark Feldman, CEO and founder of the Ziontours travel agency in Jerusalem. “It’s early, and we just have to wait until we have more information.”

Rescue flights will be available once Israel’s airspace opens up, Feldman said. Until then, however, even embassy flights are not being arranged.

Jordanian airspace is closed, and Egypt has raised its aviation alert level, so some of the indirect travel options people used during Israel’s war with Iran in June are not currently available, Feldman stressed. During that time, some anxious travelers reached Israel via land routes from those countries.

“The only possible option might be renting a private yacht from Cyprus,” Feldman said, not recommending it for most.

If the war continues for a long time, there might be some logic in heading to Athens or Larnaca to find a boat ride to Israel, Feldman advised. “But for now, just stay put,” he said.

Other countries in the region, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar also closed their airspace on Saturday. Israel’s Transportation Ministry said it would give 24 hours’ notice before flights are renewed.

Air traffic around the Middle East came to a virtual standstill during the day, live updates from flightradar24.com showed.

Diverted to Saudi Arabia

Earlier in the day, two flydubai flights from Ben Gurion Airport were diverted to Saudi Arabia. Israelis landing at an airport outside of Riyadh told Ynet that they were being treated with respect as they waited in the airport.

“It’s crazy what’s happening to us,” said a passenger named Reuven, who was flying to Dubai with his wife and two children on flydubai. The plane took off from Ben Gurion Airport about an hour after Israel closed its airspace, but was then diverted to the Saudi Al-Ahsa International Airport after missiles targeted Dubai, he said.

“They locked us in the plane for over four hours without food, without giving us any information,” before being taken to a hall in the airport, Reuven said. “We are all scared. A representative from the Foreign Ministry should at least contact us and reassure us that they are taking care of us.”

Once they were disembarked from the airplane, the Israelis were well treated by locals, Reuven told Ynet. “It’s important to them that we report to the world that they treat us with respect.”

Following the incident, flydubai said it canceled several flights and temporarily suspended operations until further notice.

“This is a developing situation, which we are monitoring closely, and we are working with the relevant authorities while adjusting our flight schedule accordingly,” flydubai said.

Meanwhile, Israeli airline El Al said it was preparing for a rescue operation to help bring Israelis stranded abroad back home once Israel’s skies are reopened for traffic.

“When air traffic resumes and approval is received to operate rescue flights to Israel, customers holding an El Al ticket will be the first to be assigned to the rescue flights,” El Al said in a statement.

Customers holding an El Al ticket will be automatically assigned and directly notified by the airline once new flight details are available. El Al is asking stranded customers to refrain from transferring to other destinations.

As of now, all El Al flights have been suspended through Sunday at the earliest. Passengers whose flights were canceled due to the security situation are entitled to a cash refund or voucher.

El Al also said that flight ticket sales have been halted until March 21 or until all El Al customers holding a flight ticket have been assigned.

“The closure of the sale is intended to allow priority to the company’s customers whose tickets were issued before the escalation,” El Al explained.

Earlier in the day, Lufthansa also said it was suspending all flight services to and from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport through March 7.

The German group, whose carriers also include SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, also canceled flights to other destinations across the Middle East, including Beirut, Amman, Erbil, and Tehran.

Affected passengers can rebook to a later travel date free of charge or, alternatively, receive a full refund of the ticket price, Lufthansa said.

Aly Mandel, a native of Highland Park, New Jersey, is currently in Paris with her husband and the two youngest of their five children, but was planning on arriving in Israel on Monday, where one of her children lives in Tel Aviv.

“We’ll sit tight in Paris for a little longer,” said Mandel, “because I don’t want to have to bring the kids to the US and then try to get back to Israel.”

Mandel and her husband flew to Paris on United, and are flying low-cost airline Transavia from Paris to Israel. Mandel said she hasn’t received any emails yet from the airline.

Mandel’s two youngest, who are twins, have been on a gap year program in Israel, although her daughter left the program in December, and officially immigrated to Israel and moved into her older sister’s apartment in Tel Aviv.

“We had a one-way ticket,” said Mandel, who is a psychologist and whose husband’s auto part import and export business is based in Dubai. Their plan was to come to Israel for the upcoming Purim holiday and stay through Passover, in April. “I’m pretending I’m semi-retired because our whole idea is to be in Israel as much as possible, with three kids there.”

She has experienced sirens before, when rockets were still being launched by the Houthis in Yemen, when Mandel and her husband were there for another prolonged visit in the fall.

“Before we got there in September, I was much more scared from a distance and when you get there, you’re like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t feel so scary,’” said Mandel. “It’s not something I want to head into, and if I have to be stuck somewhere, it’s not too bad to be stuck in Paris.”

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