Tourists walk at the Ben Gurion International Airport after entering Israel by plane, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions ease, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, May 27, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 News – A special operation to bring Ukrainian Jews to Israel began on Sunday, organized by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry in cooperation with Jewish organizations worldwide.

Three flights carrying 300 people will arrive in the Jewish state on Sunday — two leaving from Poland and one from Moldova. Another one carrying orphans is expected to leave from Romania as well.

The orphans have been protected on the other side of the Ukrainian border by Chabad. They will be flown to Israel later on Sunday. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other ministers are scheduled to greet the plane.

Ben Gurion Airport has seen thousands of Israeli citizens coming back from eastern Europe in the past weeks and days in the buildup to the Russian military invasion and during the conflict, which on Sunday entered its eleventh day.

Some non-citizens arriving in Israel were turned away, prompting the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority to defend itself against accusations that it is turning back many Ukrainian refugees who have arrived on Israeli soil.

The government said that only 86 people out of 1,800 refugees who had arrived in recent days had been prevented from entering the country.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid were scheduled to meet on Sunday morning to discuss what to do with the Ukrainian refugees who have come to Israel.

A point of discussion will be the Ukrainians who don’t qualify for the Law of Return, which gives Jews the right to make Aliyah.