JERUSALEM — For the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and Israel’s multi-front war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis, there is hope that pilgrims will return to the Holy Land.

This is welcome news for Christians who have been dreaming of visiting the Holy Land and for tour operators specializing in Holy Land pilgrimages.

“I’m receiving many inquiries from people asking, ‘When can we come to Israel?’” said Bishop Attilio Nostro of Mileto-Nicotera-Tropea, Italy, who recently toured Israel and met with local Church officials as part of an Italian Catholic delegation sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Tourism.

“I think this is the right time for pilgrims to return, especially during this Jubilee Year, which is dedicated to hope,” Bishop Nostro said.

Thanks to the ceasefires between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, rockets are no longer threatening Israel’s airspace. As a result, many European countries have lifted their travel advisories to Israel, and several European airlines have just resumed, or have promised to resume, flights to and from Tel Aviv in the coming weeks and months.

British Airways announced it will begin flights on April 5, starting with one flight per day. Lufthansa has already renewed service to Tel Aviv.

In the U.S., Delta is now accepting reservations for flights beginning April 1, and United Airlines just announced that it will return to Israel on March 15. There was no word from American Airlines at press time.

“Every airline will be keen to return to the market as soon as possible while complying with the necessary [travel] advisories,” John Grant, a partner at analytics company Midas Aviation, told Euronews.

By mid-May, there could be more than 1,200 flights per week to Israel, the news agency said, citing data from OAG, a global travel data provider.

The Feb. 1 return of daily flights from Rome should be a game changer for pilgrims flying from Italy, according to Catholics involved in pilgrimages. The resumption of flights comes on the heels of the Italian government’s decision to remove its travel advisory to Israel.

Until the recent ceasefires were implemented, pilgrims were “afraid to visit due to what they were seeing on the TV news,” said Father Marco Castellazzi, director general of CNPI, a central body organizing pilgrim tourism from across Italy under the auspices of the Vatican.

Now things are looking brighter.

Father Danilo D’Alessandro, an Italian priest who has been leading tours to Israel for 18 years, had hoped to bring a group last September, but it was canceled largely due to the inability to obtain travel insurance. Few insurance companies have been prepared to cover a trip or flight that could be canceled at any time due to rocket fire.

“A lot of people are ready to come back because they have a special feeling for the Holy Land,” Father D’Alessandro said. “Many are repeat customers. They try to come every year, to visit the holy sites and walk where Jesus walked. When I arrive back in Italy, I will talk about the people we met. It is very important to talk about life here.”

North American Pilgrims

Elisa Leopold Moed, CEO of Travelujah, a company that specializes in faith-based tours originating in North America, said she has recently seen a “significant increase” in the desire of church groups to return to Israel.

“People are hungry to come. Just in the last month, the number of inquiries and bookings has gone up,” she said. Since it takes time for groups to sign up participants, find affordable airline tickets and accommodations, and organize a tour, most of Moed’s bookings are for the fall of 2025 and throughout 2026.

However, very small groups and individuals should have no trouble finding seats, especially now that so many airlines are flying.

Moed, whose business declined 90% during the hostilities, said Christians seem to be yearning to return. Many of her clients are pastors who have a deep connection to Israel and the Holy Land.

“The biggest issue that has been limiting tourism to Israel is the fact that the availability of flights has been very limited,” she said. With little-to-no competition, it was difficult to find a New York-to-Tel Aviv flight for under $2,000, and sometimes much more.

“Church groups typically want to book as a group,” Moed explained. “They want a block of seats that are on reserve 60 days before, at a certain rate. There was a very big bottleneck, but that is changing.”

The resumption of nonstop flights from the U.S. and Europe “opens up a world of opportunities,” she said.

One pastor told Moed that he had signed up 50 people in three days for a pilgrimage.

“That gave me optimism. People seem hungry to come here, to reaffirm their faith and to strengthen their connection to the Holy Land and the Jewish people. At the same time, she is a realist,” she said. “This is the Middle East, and we always have to remember things can change very quickly.”

‘Sign of Hope’

Hani Khashram, a Catholic tour guide whose family owns Aeolus Tours, a Jerusalem travel agency that specializes in Christian pilgrimages, said business — both in the travel agency and his own guiding — plummeted from “100 to 0” within a day of the October 2023 Hamas massacre and the outbreak of war.

“We lost more than we expected. Six members of the family, including me, rely on the business for our livelihoods.”

Since airlines started to resume flights to Israel, bookings have started to come in, mostly from Catholics, starting in the late spring.

“Our instinct was to survive, and we are still here, but this crisis has hit the Christian community especially, in a big way,” Khashram said. While some Christian families have left the Holy Land due to the war, his family is holding on.

“We have high hopes, but if the airlines aren’t coming here, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “Still, the fact that the airlines are coming back is a sign of hope for the future. Our roots are here.”