U.S. air carriers Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group and United Airlines have cancelled all flights to and from Israel until further notice, after a rocket landed Tuesday near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, the Associated Press reported.
Delta and United announced in separate statements Tuesday that they are suspending service between the U.S. and Israel indefinitely to ensure passenger safety as the turmoil in the region has intensified, Reuters reported. It was joined by US Airways, who scrapped its Tel Aviv service Tuesday, stating that it is monitoring the situation in regards to future flights.
A Boeing 747, carrying 273 passengers and 17 crew, was flying over the Mediterranean headed for Tel Aviv when it was forced to turn around and fly to Paris instead. The flight stoppages came after Hamas, the militant group that dominates in the Gaza Strip, and its allies fired more rockets into Israel, triggering sirens in Tel Aviv.
Israeli police confirmed that a rocket from Gaza landed in an area near the airport, with police spokeswomen Luba Samri saying the rocket caused damage to a house and slightly wounded two Israeli.
Esther Castiel, who heads US Airways' operations in Tel Aviv, said the Federal Aviation Administration had "issued a request not to travel to Israel. All U.S. carriers are stopping." The FAA did not immediately have a comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, United Airlines has cancelled its two daily flights to Israel out of Newark, N.J., according to spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.
Airlines and passengers have grown more anxious about safety since a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine last week, killing all 298 people on board. To avoid the area over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Soviet separatists are battling the Ukrainian army, airlines have rerouted most of their flights.
Israel launched an offensive on July 8 to halt missile salvoes out of Gaza by Hamas, which was angered by a crackdown on its supporters in the occupied West Bank and suffering economic hardship because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
