Three American and British airlines cancelled their flights to Israel on July 31 in response to escalating security tensions in Israel, and potential Hezbollah retaliation following the assassination of a senior leader in Beirut.
Israeli Army Radio reported that American carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines decided to suspend their flights to Israel following the assassination of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr on July 30, with Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth Daily also confirming that British Airways had announced a similar suspension.
The Lebanese group confirmed Fuad Shukr’s death on July 31. Hours later, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said that Tel Aviv also assassinated its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike on his residence in Tehran.
The cancellations come two days after Austrian Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa suspended flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli currency, the shekel, experienced its largest sell-off in two years, falling 1.2% on July 31 due to heightened security tensions in the north and resulting flight cancellations, raising investor concerns about a full-blown Israeli war on Lebanon.
(Source: TRT World)
