Major airlines across the world have cancelled their flights to Tel Aviv, the Israeli capital, after the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, launched a surprise large-scale attack against Israel.
On the arrivals board at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, Ryanair, Aegan Airlines and some US companies were all pulling flights.
However, airport authorities did not stop commercial air links with Eilat, Israel’s second international airport and tourist destination on the Red Sea.
“Given the current security situation in Tel Aviv,” Lufthansa maintained a single flight back to Frankfurt, said a spokesman for the German carrier, but “all other Lufthansa flights to and from Tel Aviv have been cancelled for this Saturday”.
Air France said it had halted Tel Aviv flights s a day “until further notice”.
Air France-KLM group’s low-cost carrier Transavia also cancelled a flight from Paris to Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.