More than 15,000 citizens arrived in Georgia from Israel in the last 15 days, the Ambassador of Georgia to Israel, Lasha Zhvania said.
According to him, three Israeli companies operate direct flights to Tbilisi.
"From today, Georgian Airways no longer operates direct flights, although it has added flights from Larnaca to Tbilisi. There are daily flights from Larnaca to Tbilisi, and in addition, there are direct flights operated by Israeli companies - "ELAL", "Isrear" and "Arkia".
The information about the closure of the airport is completely unfounded. The airport is operating as usual, just a number of international airlines whose insurance has been suspended by the insurance companies due to hostilities are no longer able to operate flights, although today there are 2 flights in the direction of Tbilisi, and 10 flights in the direction of Larnaca. Generally these flights are not full, i.e. the demand is relatively less than the flights, otherwise the flights would be overbooked. Those who want to leave Israel leave Israel, those who want to stay are staying. The problem here is that there are practically no jobs for 3 weeks, and those who have come to work in Israel find the 3 weeks of unemployment pretty tough, and that's why they prefer to leave, because they don't know when the jobs will resume.
There are only 1,500 citizens of Georgia who left Israel. There are also many citizens with dual citizenship, and over 15,000 citizens have arrived in Georgia as a whole from Israel in the last 15 days.
Every day the hotline is open and people call with various questions, mostly upset about the information that has been spread that the international airport is closing, which is not true. We are in contact with Georgian citizens through a hotline. 2 days ago we talked to our citizens in Ashkelon who are there for work, 112 people are registered, there are more, although 112 are registered. Also, 13 Georgian doctors work in Ashkelon and they work in one of the hottest spots, the hospital closest to the Gaza Strip, and the wounded are mostly taken to that hospital," the Ambassador said.
According to Lasha Zhvania, the situation in Israel is not easy.
"The situation is the same as it was 12 days ago. The first three days were unmanageable and then Israel took full control. There are frequent terrorist acts, there are air attacks from the north, because of this, Israel has declared an evacuation zone 5 km deep from the Lebanese border, and there is an evacuation zone of 7 km around the Gaza Strip," said Lasha Zhvania.
