Elon Musk begins wartime visit to Israel, aviation tracker says

Jerusalem: Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk landed in Tel Aviv on Monday, an aviation tracker said, beginning a visit during which Israeli leaders plan to bring his attention to the plight of hostages held in war-torn Gaza and discuss rising antisemitism online.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog's office announced on Sunday that Musk would be coming to meet the head of state. According to Israeli media, he will also meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Musk's office had no immediate comment.

Avi Scharf, an aviation expert with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, posted on Musk's media platform X - formerly known as Twitter - that a plane carrying the billionaire, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, had touched down in the morning.

Netanyahu met Musk in California on Sept. 18 and urged him to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech after weeks of controversy over antisemitic content on X.

Musk responded by saying he was against antisemitism and against anything that "promotes hate and conflict," repeating his previous statements that X would not promote hate speech.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen in the United States and worldwide, including during the now seven-week-old war between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian faction Hamas.

The sides are currently in a truce under which Israel has been recovering some of the 240 people Hamas took hostage during a cross-border killing spree on Oct 7. In exchange, Israel has been freeing some Palestinians jailed on security grounds.