AIRLINES are suspending flights from the UK to Israel amid rising fears escalating hostilities in the Middle East will boil over into all-out war.
BA and Wizz Air have suspended their services between London and Tel Aviv while Virgin Atlantic said it was further delaying the resumption of services after Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on neighbouring Lebanon over the weekend.
The Israeli army targeted what it said were “terror targets” in southern Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group, who it claimed were planning an attack.
In retaliation, Hezbollah said it had sent a “large number of drones” to attack Israel as part of its response to the assassination of Fouad Shukur, a top commander with the group, in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
The Iran-backed militant group said the attack was targeting “a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later” as well as “targeting a number of enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome platforms”.
BA said flights between London and Tel Aviv would be suspended “up to and including Wednesday, August 28” while Wizz Air did not give a date when services would be resumed.
Virgin Atlantic, which had previously suspended services, announced on Sunday that services between the two capital cities would resume on September 25.
In a statement, the company added: “Our teams will be in contact with anyone affected to discuss options, which include rebooking to a later date or a full refund and in the meantime, customers can benefit from our partnership with EL AL which operates multiple daily flights between Heathrow and Ben Gurion Airport.”
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden (below) said he was “very concerned” about the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
He said: “This is a major escalation, that’s the word that’s always used about these things in terms of what’s been happening between Israel and Hamas in Gaza over the past year, and there’s been a fear of a major escalation.
“Even as this unfolds, the UK Government and the international community would urge all parties not to escalate further and to avoid a major regional war. That is the real danger facing the area.
“We hope this doesn’t turn out to be that and we hope that afterwards we can de-escalate the situation.
“But we’re very concerned about what’s happening there, very concerned for the people there, and we hope this is not a long-term outbreak in major hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.”
