JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities are using container ships to bring back dozens of essential medical staff stuck abroad after the air war with Iran broke out on Saturday, disrupting travel, according to Israel’s cargo firm ZIM Shipping.
A ZIM official told Reuters on Tuesday that its cargo ships were shuttling between Limassol in Cyprus and the Israeli port of Haifa, in an operation coordinated between the Transportation Ministry, major Israeli hospitals and the company.
So far, 40 doctors have returned in two sailings — including one on Tuesday — and more shuttles are planned this week to repatriate what could be hundreds of doctors, to deal with Israelis injured by Iranian missiles.
“It’s the easiest way to get them home when there are no flights,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
The doctors were away either at conventions or on holidays and now sought to “go back as fast as possible to their jobs in case of emergencies,” he added.
