Flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport experienced significant disruptions on Saturday, with nearly 15% of them being canceled amid noticeable explosions in the area, as per flight tracking site, FlightAware.
The disruptions followed an unexpected, large-scale assault on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
Multiple major airline carriers, including American Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, Ryanair, and Aegean Airlines, either canceled or rerouted their flights to and from Tel Aviv in light of the deteriorating security conditions.
Lufthansa has called off all its flights through Monday, continually assessing the Israeli security situation, while Air France has suspended its Tel Aviv services “until further notice.”
Low-cost carrier Transavia, part of the Air France-KLM group, as well as Polish carrier LOT, also canceled services to Tel Aviv.
However, Eilat, Israel’s secondary international airport and a renowned tourist spot by the Red Sea, maintained its commercial air connectivity.
At least 20 Israelis were killed and over 540 others injured since Friday morning in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, according to media reports.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asserted the right of his people to defend themselves.
Abbas ordered necessary protection for people, stressing the right of the Palestinian people to “defend themselves against the terrorism of settlers and the occupation forces.”
Egypt called for restraint on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry warned of the repercussions of this escalation and called on the international community to ask Israel to stop its attacks against the Palestinian people.
