In a sweeping effort to bring home tens of thousands of Israeli citizens stranded overseas, El Al  has launched emergency repatriation flights following the closure of Israel’s airspace due to the ballistic missile threat from Iran. The operation, carried out in coordination with the Ministry of Transportation, is the first major step toward addressing the estimated 150,000 Israelis currently abroad with no commercial way to return home. El Al and its charter subsidiary, Sundor, opened a dedicated online registration portal Monday for passengers whose flights to Israel were canceled. The airline urged travelers to register online only, as phone requests would not be accepted.

El Al will begin operating a limited number of one-way flights to Tel Aviv by Thursday, to gradually bring home the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad by the war against Iran, Transport Minister Miri Regev said.
Arkia said it will also operate rescue flights, as soon as Israeli security officials give the go ahead, from Athens, Larnaca, Rome, Paris and New York, including on Saturdays.
Monday’s announcements come as some 150,000 Israelis remain stranded abroad since the Jewish state closed its airspace to civilian traffic after launching a preemptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin revealed that an Israeli Air Force drone destroyed two Iranian F-14 fighter jets at a Tehran airport, with the IDF releasing footage of the strike, alongside other videos showing strikes on Iranian soldiers preparing to launch drones, containers storing drones, and Iran’s state broadcaster building in Tehran.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out a major overnight offensive that obliterated the central operational hub of Iran’s Quds Force, a top-tier military unit that has played a key role in coordinating terror activities by Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, according to IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
“The Quds Force has been the main conduit for many of the terrorist attacks and assaults against Israel in recent decades,” he said. “Now, the command centers where these attacks were planned have been completely destroyed.”

WhatsApp announced Monday that it will begin displaying ads in the app’s Updates tab, which is accessed by up to 1.5 billion users each day. The move marks Meta’s latest effort to generate revenue from the messaging platform. Developers emphasized that ads will not appear in personal chats.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu arrived Monday at the Tel Nof Airbase, accompanied by Defense Minister Yisroel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, where he observed firsthand the ongoing air operations.
While addressing the troops, Netanyahu expressed deep appreciation for the Israeli Air Force’s efforts. “On behalf of the people and the State of Israel, you are doing amazing things. The IAF controls the skies of Tehran. That changes the entire campaign,” he declared, commending their achievements and strategic dominance.

A German court sentenced a Syrian doctor to life imprisonment for torture and war crimes in his Syrian homeland on Monday for killing two people and torturing nine in Syria between 2011 and 2012. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court also established the particular gravity of the guilt, which in practice virtually rules out early release after 15 years — as is often the case in Germany when people are sentenced to life imprisonment. The 40-year-old Syrian, who was identified as Alaa M. in line with German privacy rules, was placed in preventive detention, German news agency dpa reported. In his verdict, presiding judge Christoph Koller described the actions of the accused in the military hospital in the Syrian city of Homs in the early stages of the civil war that began in 2011.