ISRAEL AT WAR
El Al will fly on Shabbat to bring reservists home
The Israeli airline has historically avoided flying for 25 hours in observance of the Sabbath
Israel’s El Al Airlines has confirmed that it will operate flights this coming Saturday from both the U.S. and Asia so it can continue to bring back reservists to fight against Hamas. It will break a 40-year policy of not flying on Shabbat, and the last time it flew on a Sabbath was in 1982.
The airline explicitly received permission from rabbis who have said that the preservation of life overrides other religious laws.
The flights will land from New York and Bangkok on the airline's Boeing 787 aircraft and will not be charging passengers who received military call-up orders. El Al also confirmed that large financial institutions in the United States are contributing to the cost, but did not confirm which ones.
In the last few days, Israel has called more than 350,000 reservists to join the war against Hamas, the largest ever for the country. At the time of writing, more than 1,300 people have died in Israel as a result of a surprise attack on its soil on Saturday.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that an anonymous donor had bought 250 plane tickets for Israel-bound IDF reservists at JFK Airport.
