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Israel Extends Stay of Ukrainian Refugees to End of 2024
Then-Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen speaks during a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv in February 2023. Photo: Reuters/Gleb Garanich
The Israeli government on Wednesday announced that Ukrainian refugees who fled their country due to the ongoing war with Russia can remain in Israel until the end of 2024, extending their stay in a move that was welcomed by Ukraine.
“We praise the current decision of the government of Israel to prolong approval for Ukrainian citizens to legally stay in Israel until the end of 2024!” Ukraine’s Embassy in Israel said in a statement. “This decision is especially generous in these challenging times for the State of Israel.”
The Ukrainian embassy appeared to be referencing Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza against the Hamas terror group, which launched the conflict with its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
The decision to extend the stay for Ukrainian refugees was made by Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, praised the move.
“We highly appreciate this decision,” he said. “Our nations are going together through the hardest times and even now, we feel the support of the Israeli people.”
Korniychuk’s comments came after he and Israeli officials clashed over Israel’s treatment of Ukrainian citizens.
The ambassador had warned last year that Hasidic visitors would be banned from the Ukrainian city of Uman — the site of the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the revered founder of the Breslover Hasidim — in response to Israel’s deportation of Ukrainian citizens.
According to Korniychuk, Israel had deported around 10 percent of Ukrainian refugees arriving in the country. Israel rejected the criticism, asserting that the envoy’s figures for deportations were “inflated.”
Over 20,000 Hasidim ended up making the pilgrimage to Uman in September, despite security concerns about traveling to a country at war. Uman has been targeted by Russian forces on several occasions since the invasion. In April, at least 20 people were killed in an air strike on the city.
The two governments have also clashed over the provision of medical insurance to Ukrainian refugees in Israel. In August, thousands of refugees found themselves without coverage before the Israeli authorities agreed to an extension until the end of the year.
More than 15,000 Ukrainians have immigrated to Israel since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in Feb. 2022, according to government figures released early last year. The Israeli government has budgeted 40 million NIS ($10.7 million) for their welfare.
Millions of refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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