50,000 visit Israel’s national parks as Passover holiday comes to an end

Nature reserves from north to south fill up with hikers; beaches at Sea of Galilee and Mediterranean coast packed as Israelis enjoy the fine weather

By ToI Staff 27 April 2019, 3:24 pm

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Israelis hike on the Oren Stream trail in the Carmel Mountains Nature Reserve, near the northern city of Haifa, April 26, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Around 50,000 Israelis took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather on Saturday and visited the country’s nature reserves and national parks.

Schools and kindergartens reopen Sunday morning after a nearly two week break for Passover, and families flocked to the country’s parks for a last trip before the end of the holiday.

Popular locations included the Yarkon national park, Tel Afek park, Masada, the ancient fortress overlooking the Dead Sea, and Ein Gedi in the south, the national parks at Caesarea and Ashkelon, the caves at Beit Guvrin and the Banias nature reserve in the north.

Thousands of people visited the beaches of the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean coast.

On Friday, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority estimated that around 200,000 people had visited their sites by late afternoon as Israelis marked Pesach Sheni (the Second Passover holiday).