Lebanon’s Beirut airport cancels flights over fears of Israeli attack | Aviation news

The cancellations come out of fear of a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah following the rocket attack.

Flights at Beirut airport have been cancelled or delayed. Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) said schedule disruptions were due to insurance risks as tensions escalate between Israel and the armed political group Hezbollah.

Lufthansa announced on Monday that it had suspended five routes operated by Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings and Lufthansa to and from Beirut until July 30 “out of an abundance of caution”.

A rocket attack that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday has heightened fears that a full-scale war could break out between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

The Israeli security cabinet gave the government authority to respond to the attack on Sunday.

Hezbollah denies responsibility for the attack, which is the deadliest in Israel or the territories annexed by Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza and has since spread to multiple fronts.

Beirut Airport’s flight information board and flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that Turkish Airlines also canceled two flights on Sunday night.

Turkey-based budget airline SunExpress, Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air and MEA have also cancelled flights scheduled to land in Beirut on Monday, Flightradar24 shows.

The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is the only airport in Lebanon.

It has been targeted in the country’s civil war and in previous clashes with Israel, including the most recent war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said that the departure of some flights scheduled to land in Beirut overnight had been delayed.

Further delays to flights arriving on Monday were subsequently announced due to “technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks for aircraft between Lebanon and other destinations,” the MEA said.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there has been increased cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

The conflict has disrupted air and maritime traffic across the region, including during mutual drone and missile attacks between Israel and Iran in April.

Due to the “current developments” in the Middle East, Lufthansa had already suspended night flights to and from Beirut for July.