As probably most people have already heard, during the middle of the night in the Middle East, Israel launched an attack against military and nuclear targets in Iran. This was a huge undertaking, given the number of planes the Israeli Air Force used and the distance they had to fly, not to mention the secrecy needed to pull it off. As a result, defensive tactics were not launched until after the attack began so as not to give warning. This included the closing of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
Tel Aviv Airport Closed and All Israeli Planes Evacuated
Shortly after the attack in Iran began, Israel canceled all flights from Israeli airlines and began the huge effort of evacuating the planes at Ben Gurion to other locations. This was in anticipation of a retaliatory attack from Iran. It was expected to be a devastating one and at 3AM in Israel, air raid sirens went off all over the country and phone calls went out from the military to warn everyone to get to bomb shelters and prepare to shelter there for some time. For those that have not been to Israel before, many homes and all apartment buildings, large facilities, and hotels have bomb shelters (I’ve even spent a couple of nights in one before – as a bedroom, not out of necessity, though it was close).
These planes were evacuated out of Israel to other countries to prevent them from being destroyed by an Iranian attack. Other airlines had only recently been slowing adding flights back to Israel and these are now canceled. The biggest issue with such an evacuation is the evacuation of third-country nationals that are inside Israel right now. Their home nations will likely have to start sending their own flagged carriers to retrieve them when it is deemed safe. That actually may be sooner than anticipated as the mandatory shelter order had already been lifted after the Israeli attack destroyed more of the Iranian forces than originally thought possible.
I know when I was in Israel shortly before America’s attack on Iraq in 2003, we were prepared for the airport’s closure and plans were made to have foreign nationals board ships bound for Cyprus and then take off from there. I am sure there is some contingency similar to that in place now for any foreign nationals that are looking to leave.
Israel’s government plane, Wings of Zion, has also left the country and recently landed in Athens.
Airlines are adjusting flight patterns as this war starts to pick up steam and the world waits to see what an Iranian retaliation will look like. Even though it appears they were caught off guard, it is said that they know they have to make a strong response or they will never have respect in the Muslim nation community again.
Obviously, if you had plans for visiting Israel, those are going to be on hold for a while.
