Israel lifts travel ban on citizens returning from Britain

Israel will take Britain off its travel ban list from next week as part of a reorganisation of its foreign travel rules.

The Health Ministry guidelines divide into three categories — yellow, orange and red — to determine how long Israelis must isolate when they return to the country.

The changes to the lists, which take effect from August 16, do not apply to foreign visitors.

Britain and South Africa will move to the orange category, meaning Israelis returning from those countries will be required to isolate for a week.

The two countries were previously in the red category and subject to an Israeli travel ban.

Travel to red list countries is only permitted if permission is granted by a government exemptions committee.

The yellow category contains just ten countries from which returning Israelis are required to isolate for 24 hours or until receiving a negative test result.

Austria, Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary, Taiwan, Moldova, New Zealand, and Singapore are the countries on the yellow list.

Cases of coronavirus are on the rise in Israel despite strong take-up of vaccines: as of Sunday, there were over 30,000 active cases in the country, with 363 in a serious condition in hospital.