United, Delta suspend flights to Israel as Middle East tensions rise
FILE - Boeing 757-200. (Delta)
NEW YORK CITY - United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both suspended flights to Israel on Wednesday, halting planned flights to Tel Aviv amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
"Beginning with this evening’s flight from Newark Liberty to Tel Aviv, we are suspending for security reasons our daily Tel Aviv service as we evaluate our next steps," United told FOX Business in a statement. "We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on resuming service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews."
Delta posted a notice on its website that its flights between New York-JFK and Tel Aviv will be paused through Friday, saying the company "is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports and will communicate any updates as needed."
Israel has been at war with Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas ever since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, but the conflict in the region has escalated in recent days and stoked fears that Israel could face further targeting after the deaths of two leaders of Iran's terrorist proxy organizations.
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On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut targeted and killed Fuad Shukr, a key commander of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Shukr was the Hezbollah commander who was behind a drone strike that killed 12 children and teens on a soccer field in Israel over the weekend.
Then Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday, prompting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to declare that it is Iran's duty to "take revenge" for the attack.
No one immediately took responsibility for the assassination, but Israel was quickly blamed after pledging to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the terrorist group's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish State, which killed 1,200 people while roughly 250 others were abducted.
While Israel did not immediately comment, it usually does not make public statements on assassinations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency.
FOX News' Andrea Vacchiano and Landon Mion contributed to this report.