A number of airlines are temporarily not flying to the Lebanese capital Beirut. The threat has increased after a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which hit a football field and killed twelve children.
Among others, the Lufthansa Group will not fly to Beirut “as a precaution” until at least Tuesday. In practice, this means that flights from Lufthansa, SWISS and Eurowings have been cancelled.
Also, a Transavia plane did not depart from Amsterdam to Beirut on Monday morning . A spokesperson for the Dutch airline confirmed to NU.nl that the flight was canceled due to the threat in Lebanon. KLM’s security service advised against flying last weekend. Transavia is part of the Air France-KLM Group.
In addition, a number of Turkish airlines have cancelled flights to the Lebanese airport. Flights from London, Paris and several destinations in the Middle East are still operating .
Israel accuses Hezbollah
The increased threat follows the deadly attack on a soccer field near the town of Majdal Shams last weekend, which Israel says was carried out by Hezbollah. The Lebanese movement, which is backed by Iran, has stepped up attacks on Israel since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
Hezbollah says it is not responsible for the attack. The Lebanese foreign minister suspects that the attack “was carried out by another organization or that it was a mistake by Israel or Hezbollah.”
Fear of a heavy retaliatory attack
There are fears that Israel will launch a major retaliatory attack on Hezbollah. The United States is doing everything it can to prevent the threat from escalating into a new war front, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. French President Emmanuel Macron called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ask him to avoid escalation.
Rafic Hariri International Airport is the only international airport in Lebanon. About seven million passengers pass through this airport each year.
