Israel’s national flag carrier, El Al, has activated an emergency protocol to evacuate its aircraft out of Tel Aviv in response to continued missile attacks by Iran on Israel and the wider region, including strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
El Al would not normally operate any flights on a Saturday as the airline observes the Jewish holy tradition of Shabbat, keeping planes grounded between sunset on Friday and nightfall on Saturday.
However, on Saturday afternoon, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) turned into a hive of activity for El Al as it scrambled pilots and crews to evacuate it multi-million-dollar fleet of aircraft, including Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Around 12 El Al flights remain in the air after they were all cleared for takeoff in quick succession, with planes headed to Athens, Greece, Rome, Italy, Paris, France, Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania. There is also one El Al Boeing 737 heading to Nottingham, England.
The flights are operating under irregular flight numbers, indicating that these are not regularly scheduled flights.
Sources tell PYOK that aboard some of these planes are crews of foreign airlines who were stranded in Israel when their employers cancelled or turned back planes headed towards Israel when news of Israel’s ‘preemptive’ strikes on Tehran were announced.
A spokesperson for the Israel Airport Authority confirmed that Tel Aviv Airport would remain shuttered until Monday at the earliest.
Israel has a highly sophisticated air defense system, which has repelled previous missile strikes by Iran and its proxies in the region, but it is not completely impenetrable.
In May 2025, a ballistic missile fired towards Israel by Yemen’s Houthi military group evaded the Israeli air defense network and hit the outskirts of Ben Gurion Airport.
Thick black smoke was seen billowing above the airport in view of parked aircraft, and there were reports of several injuries from flying shrapnel.
A month later, Israeli carriers carried out a full-scale preemptive evacuation of their aircraft from Tel Aviv over fears that Iran was plotting an attack on Israel.
On that occasion, many of the aircraft were evacuated to Athens, but, as can be seen in the latest evacuation, planes are being sent further afield.
It also appears that Israel’s version of Air Force One – a Boeing 767, which is known as the ‘Wings of Zion’ (registration: 4X-ISR) has been sent airborne to avoid the threat of being hit by an Iranian missile.
The aircraft has been on a holding pattern off the coast of Israel for some time, indicating that the Israeli government wants to keep the jet close at hand should its use be required as the security situation develops.
