Tourexpi
Three
American and British airlines canceled their flights to Israel Wednesday in
response to escalating security tensions as Tel Aviv braces for possible
retaliation from the Lebanese Hezbollah group following the assassination of
one of its key military leaders in Beirut.
Israeli
Army Radio reported that American carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines
decided on the move following the assassination of senior Hezbollah commander
Fuad Shukr on Tuesday.
Israel’s
Yedioth Ahronoth daily also confirmed that British Airways had announced the
suspension of its flights to Israel.
“United
Airlines, which operates 14 weekly flights to Tel Aviv, informed customers of
flight cancellations for the coming days,” the newspaper said.
“Delta
canceled Wednesday's and Thursday's flights from New York,” it added.
The
newspaper noted that “British Airways also announced cancellations, though it
is unclear if they are for the next 24 or 48 hours.”
On
Monday, Austrian Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa suspended flights to and from
Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
In
April, Israel closed its airspace for seven hours due to a heavy drone and
missile attack by Iran, which was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on
Tehran's embassy in Damascus. The attack killed 16 people, including a senior
Iranian Quds Force officer.
Security
tensions in Israel have surged after Tel Aviv announced the assassination of
Shukr, 63, in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut on Tuesday night.
Hezbollah confirmed Shukr's assassination on Wednesday evening.
Hours
later, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said that Tel Aviv assassinated
its political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in an Israeli airstrike targeting
his residence in Tehran. Haniyeh had arrived in the Iranian capital to attend
the inauguration of Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Fears
have grown of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah amid a months-long
exchange of cross-border fire.
The
escalation comes against the backdrop of an Israeli onslaught on Gaza which has
killed more than 39,400 people since last October following an attack by Hamas.
Image
Credit: © AA
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