Israel has extracted 19 Jews from Yemen in a "complex, covert operation," officials said on Monday, noting they were among the last remaining in the war-torn country.
The Jewish Agency, responsible for Jewish immigration to Israel, said around 50 Jews are still in Yemen and have chosen to remain there. Yemenite Jews are considered one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world.
"Nineteen individuals arrived in Israel in recent days, including 14 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from Sanaa," the agency said in a statement.
"The group from Raydah included the community's rabbi, who brought a Torah scroll believed to be between 500 and 600 years old."
Yemen has been gripped by violence since September 2014, when Houthi rebels, who had long complained of marginalisation, stormed Sanaa and forced the internationally recognised government to flee south.
A Saudi-led coalition began bombing raids on Houthi positions across Yemen in March last year but the insurgents still control swathes of the country including the capital.
Al Qaeda and the millitant Islamic State group have gained ground in southern Yemen since the coalition launched its air campaign.
The Jewish Agency says more than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since the country was founded in 1948.The Jewish Agency said that as Yemen has descended into civil war and the humanitarian situation in the country has worsened, the Jewish community has found itself increasingly imperiled.
More than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since the country’s establishment in 1948. In 1949, Israel organized their mass transfer to the newly-established state in Operation Magic Carpet.
The Jewish Agency noted that some fifty Jews remain in Yemen, including approximately forty in Sanaa, where they live in a closed compound adjacent to the US embassy and enjoy the protection of Yemeni authorities. These last Jews have chosen to remain in the country without Jewish communal or organizational infrastructure, the Jewish Agency said.
Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky said hailed the mission as a "significant moment in the history of Israel and of aliya."
"From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, The Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemenite Jewry home to Israel. Today we bring that historic mission to a close. This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end, but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the State of Israel,” Sharansky said.
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