Israel welcomed a group of Iranian immigrants.
Forty Jews from Tehran and other Iranian areas landed in Ben-Gurion Airport late Tuesday after traveling through a third country in a secret aliyah operation organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Details on their identities were barred from publication for fear relatives still in the Islamic Republic could be targeted in reprisals.
The new immigrants were offered $10,000 each by Zionist charities to make the move, officials said. More than 200 Iranians have immigrated to Israel in 2007, up from 65 the year before.
Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran, their lives overshadowed by tensions between the Tehran regime and Israel.
