Several international airlines have suspended flights to Tel Aviv until conditions improve in Israel, following Hamas’s attack on the country.
At least 700 people have been killed so far in Israel, according to local media, and the Health Ministry for Gaza said a further 413 – including 78 children and 41 women – had been killed in the territory.
In response to the situation, US airlines United, Delta and American suspended direct flights, as did Air Canada, Lufthansa and Air France.
In a statement, United said its final services had returned from Israel late on Saturday and early on Sunday, but further flights would be suspended ‘until conditions allow them to resume’.
Asian firms Hainan Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air have also cancelled trips to Tel Aviv, while several flights have reportedly turned around mid-air.
Yesterday evening, CNN reported that Hamas was claiming to be targeting the Ben Gurion Airport, the busiest airport in Israel and its international hub.
The armed wing of Hamas, known as the Izzedine al Qassam Brigades, said the ‘missile barrage was in response to the continuing crimes and targeting of civilian homes’, according to the news channel.
Bel Trew, the chief international correspondent for The Independent, posted a video on social media last night appearing to show rockets being intercepted in Tel Aviv.
Ben Gurion Airport’s flight board shows it is still operating this morning, though a significant number of services have been delayed or cancelled.
Retaliatory Israeli airstrikes had destroyed 159 housing units across Gaza and severely damaged 1,210 others by late Sunday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
As a result of the fighting between the country’s military and Hamas, the number of displaced people in the small territory south-west of Israel has risen to 123,000.
Around 2,000 people on each side have been wounded since hostilities broke out early on Saturday morning.
Israeli rescue service Zaka said its paramedics had removed 260 bodies from the site of the Supernova music festival, which was targeted by Hamas.
The total death toll in the area is expected to be higher, as other paramedic groups are working in the area.
One attendee, named Ortel, told Israel’s Channel 12: ‘They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction.
‘Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms.’
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken more than 130 people captive from Israel, while the country’s military only said the number of hostages was ‘significant’.
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