Israel’s Eilat port is seeking emergency state funding having been shut for all year, coming under regular attacks in the ongoing war with Hamas.
“The port has been non-operational for eight months due to attacks, meaning it has no revenue,” Gideon Golber, the port’s CEO said yesterday, at a meeting at the country’s parliamentary economic affairs committee. Golber said he wants financial assistance, not loans, to get through the current period of no business.
The port of Ashdod has said it is willing to take in some workers from Eilat temporarily if the issue of their accommodation in the city is settled.
Eilat mayor Eli Lankri told politicians yesterday: “We have huge plans for the port, but we fear it will die and disappear.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said this morning it had launched a drone strike on Eilat. The Houthis have targeted the port repeatedly as well this year.
The port lies in the south of Israel, neighbouring Jordan’s Aqaba port at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. It is the third largest port in Israel after Ashdod and Haifa.