The Israeli Ministry of Transportation heightened what it described as "measures" today, Thursday, following the repercussions related to the "Fly Dubai" case.
Tel Aviv imposed restrictions preventing foreign airlines from operating flight crews with nationalities from around 30 countries worldwide on flights crossing Israeli airspace.
Among the countries whose citizens are prohibited from working on flight crews heading to Israel are: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
In contrast, the Israeli restrictions do not include citizens of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
According to reports, the restrictions also apply to dual nationals, as Israel requires foreign airlines to verify the additional nationalities held by pilots and flight crew members. Those holding American or European citizenship are not allowed to be included in the flight crews heading to Israel if they hold additional citizenship from a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Foreign airlines are also required to provide Israeli authorities with the names of crew members 48 hours prior to departure.
A spokesperson for the Swiss airline "Swiss" told a Swiss newspaper that the airline requested its crew members, following the new Israeli instructions, to inform it of any additional nationalities they hold.
This indicates, in practice, that a major foreign airline acknowledged that it had not previously gathered this information accurately about all its employees and was not necessarily aware of all the foreign nationalities they held.