UPDATE Czech President Vaclav Klaus has canceled his planned four-day state visit to Israel, scheduled to begin on Sunday 18 November.
"The trip has been canceled," said the president's spokesman Radim Ochvat, without adding any details.
Czech ambassador to Israel Tomas Pojar said in a phone interview that Prague has agreed with Tel Aviv to postpone the visit due to the current tense situation in the country.
Pojar said it is too early to speculate whether Klaus will manage to visit Israel before his term expires in March 2013.
"The Czech Republic fully recognizes Israel's right to self-defense against missiles attacks from militant organizations in the Gaza Strip, while it considers important to avoid civilian casualties," said the Czech Foreign Ministry on its website.
The original story published on Nov. 15 (6:20 pm, CET) is here:
Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus will embark on a state visit to Israel on Sunday 18 November, amid a very tense situation developing in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
According to the president's agenda, he will stay in Israel for four days, until November 21.
There is no doubt that the ongoing hostilities will affect the visit.
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In the last two days, Israel has been on the bring of war with the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement. On November 14, Israel's armed forces killed a Hamas military commander, Ahmed Jabari, in response to previous missile attacks on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
President Klaus is expected to meet with Israel's top politicians, including his counterpart Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fisher and other officials.
The Czech president will also attend some business meetings organized by the Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce.
Aktualne.cz has learned that the Czech business delegation will include the owner of the Viktoria Plzen soccer club, Tomas Paclik.
In October and November, Viktoria Plzen played against Israel's Hapoel Tel Aviv in the UEFA Europa League group stage.
In addition to political and business meetings, Klaus will also pay homage to the memory of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism.
The office of the president refused to speculate on whether the long-planned visit may be canceled in case the situation in Gaza deteriorates.
Sources in Israel have confirmed to Aktualne.cz that the itinerary remains unchanged.
Czech-Israeli relations are traditionally very close. During his May visit to the Czech Republic, Israeli PM Netanyahu said that the Czech Republic was "Israel's best friend in Europe".
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Israel's daily Jerusalem Post even called the Czech government "one of the friendliest governments toward Israel in the world."
