A group of 16 Yemenite Jews landed in Israel Sunday, having emigrated from their home country with the help of the Jewish Agency.
"I hope all of Yemen's Jews make aliyah to Israel as soon as possible and won't immigrate to other destinations worldwide," said Eli Cohen, director of the Jewish Agency's Aliya and Absorption Division.
New immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport (Photo: Yaron Brener)
As a first step, the three families will reside at the Jewish Agency's absorption centers.
There are currently around 260 Jews still residing in Yemen, most of them in the city of Rada. The community lived in harmony alongside its Muslim neighbors until recently, when members of the community began to report threats.
They say the growing hostility against them was being largely ignored by the Yemenite authorities.
Meanwhile, a Yemenite court sentenced a former pilot to death for the murder of a Jewish man. Abdul-Aziz al-Abdi confessed to shooting Moshe al-Nahari, brother of the Jewish community's chief rabbi.
Eyewitnesses said they had heard al-Abdi call out to al-Nahari: "Jew, accept the message of Islam" at a local market in Rada. He then opened fire, killing him.