Israeli aviation officials and diplomats will be highly concerned by the move from several major international airlines to suspend flights to Israel and Hamas will no doubt claim a major propaganda victory.
Ben Vogel, Editor of IHS Jane’s Airport Review said that so far, Hamas has failed to carry out its threat – announced on 9 July – to hit Ben Gurion Airport with any of its long-range rockets, but the international aviation community appears to be in no mood to take risks near conflict zones, especially in the context of the surface-to-air missile shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine on 17 July.
Air France and Lufthansa on 22 July announced they are suspending all flights to Israel, after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all carriers to cancel services to Tel Aviv for 24 hours.
The FAA Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) came after shrapnel from a rocket fired by Hamas hit a house near Ben Gurion International Airport.
EasyJet and KLM have also grounded their flights to Israel.
Delta had already announced it was halting services to Israel indefinitely, citing security concerns. US Airways is cancelling flights until 24 July.
At the time of writing, Air Canada also cancelled one flight to Tel Aviv.