Neighboring countries of Israel have closed their airspaces following a missile attack by Iran, forcing airlines to divert flights.
FlightRadar24, a tracking service, showed flights were diverting “anywhere they could,” Reuters reported.
The report added that many of those flights converged in two nearby areas, Cairo and Istanbul. However, according to FlightRadar24, Antalya, which is located in southern Turkey, and Istanbul became congested due to the influx of international flights, which then forced some airlines to divert south.
Data showed that there were about 80 flights, which were diverted from their original destinations due to the missile attack on Israel.
Some of the airlines that had to divert their flights include British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways. The flights were mostly bound for Middle East countries like Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai. Aside from being diverted to Cairo in Egypt, other airlines had to be diverted to European cities. There were also airlines that suspended their flights altogether to avoid using the affected air space.
The strike of Iran against Israel was in retaliation to the latter’s campaign against Hezbollah allies of Tehran in Lebanon. Israel underscored a “painful response.”
The Eurocontrol had earlier issued a warning of an escalating conflict in the area. In an “urgent” navigation bulletin, it stated that a missile attack was launched against Israel and that the country was already “under a missile warning.”
The Jordanian state news agency said that it already re-opened its airspace after closing it in the wake of the missile attack. The Transport Minister Ali Hamie of Lebanon said that on Tuesday, its airspace will be closed for two hours.
In the latest report of The Guardian on the Iran-Israel conflict, it revealed the statement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the unprecedented attack.
“Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” the prime minister of Israel told his security cabinet during a late meeting on Tuesday.
“The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies… They will understand,” he further added.
There were more than 180 ballistic missiles that were fired at Israel, all of which came less than 24 hours after Netanyahu ordered a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.