The Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives will ban Israelis from the luxury tourist hot spot, the office of the president said Sunday, announcing a national rally in “solidarity with Palestine“.
A spokesman for President Mohamed Muizzu’s office said in a statement that the president had “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports,” but he did not specify when the new law will go into effect.
A nationwide fundraising initiative named “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine” was also declared by Muizzu.
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and moved to restore relations in 2010.
Nevertheless, attempts at normalization were abandoned once President Mohamed Nasheed was overthrown in February 2012.
In a show of protest over the Gaza war, opposition groups and government allies in the Maldives have been applying pressure to Muizzu to forbid Israelis.
According to official figures, there were 528 Israeli visitors to the Maldives in the first four months of this year, an 88 percent decrease from the same period the previous year.
A representative for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised people not to visit the Maldives in light of the embargo.
“For Israeli citizens staying in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, since if they fall into distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to help,” the spokesman added.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,439 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
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