Yemenite Jews arrive in Israel

JERUSALEM, June 22 (UPI) -- In a covert operation conducted by the Jewish Agency, 16 Yemenite Jews arrived in Israel Sunday, the agency announced.

Details of the route taken by the Yemenite Jews accompanied by agency officials, were not released for publication, local media said.

An Agency official expressed hope the 260 Jews remaining in Yemen will immigrate to Israel in the near future.

"I hope all of Yemen's Jews make aliyah to Israel as soon as possible and won't immigrate to other destinations in the world," Eli Cohen, director of the agency's Aliyah and Absorption division, told Ynetnews.com

The Web site said the majority of Jews residing in Yemen live in the city of Rada, and until recently lived in harmony with their Muslim neighbors.

In March, 10 Jewish families whose lives were reportedly threatened by al-Qaida elements were brought to Israel, the Haaretz newspaper said. The Jews living in Yemen enjoy special protection from the country's President Ali Abdallah Salah, the paper said. Despite this, anti-Semitic threats against the Jews living there have been on the rise, the paper said.