The United States has banned all American aircraft from flying to Tel Aviv for at least 24 hours for security concerns.
The Federal Aviation Administration made the decision after a rocket attack happened near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Israeli police officials have confirmed that a rocket from Gaza hit an area near the airport.
According to Israeli police spokeswomen, Luba Samri, the rocket landing was the closest to the airport since Israel began its military assault on Gaza on July 8.
Earlier in the day, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. said they were canceling flights to Israel.
A Delta Boeing 747 en route from New York to Tel Aviv turned around and flew to Paris instead.
In addition, United Airlines suspended service between the US and Israel indefinitely.
United said it was suspending its two daily Tel Aviv flights, adding one of its planes took off from the airport in Tel Aviv earlier on Tuesday but a second was still on the ground there.
Israel’s transport minister, Yisrael Katz, responded furiously to US move. “There is no reason for these companies to stop flights. They have given a prize to terror.”
Israel’s Transportation Ministry issued a statement saying the airport was “safe for landings and departures.”
“Ben-Gurion Airport is safe and completely guarded and there is no reason whatsoever that American companies would stop their flights and hand terror a prize,” it said in a statement.
According to aviation and legal experts, airlines are now taking risk assessment into their own hands, in order to maintain safety of their passengers and avoid claims of negligence.
More than 630 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded, including women and children, by the Israeli offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip. In response to the attack, Palestinian resistance fighters fired rockets into Israeli cities. The Iron Dome has reportedly shot down most of the rockets fired from Gaza.
The regime in Tel Aviv had warned earlier that Hamas had dozens of long-range rockets capable of striking deeper into Israel than ever before.
