Khaberni - Israeli media reported last Sunday that the head of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakai, warned foreign airlines that the end of the current week would be a sensitive period, amidst ongoing escalation of tensions between the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other.
According to Channel 12 Israel and The Times of Israel, the head of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority sent a message to foreign airlines, not ruling out that Tel Aviv could once again close its airspace, as happened during the previous confrontations between Israel and Iran in October 2024, and June 2025.
Channel 13 Israel reported last Sunday that the escalation of tensions with Iran has affected global airlines' flights to Israel, resulting in widespread cancellations of scheduled flights to Israel.
The Israeli channel explained that the German airline Lufthansa and the Italian airline "ITI" extended the suspension of their night flights to Israel, while the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) announced the cancellation of all its flights to Israel until further notice.
The French airline "Air France" announced last Friday the cancellation of its flights to Tel Aviv due to the escalating tension in the region.
In a related context, the Israeli website "Walla" reported last night that Israeli airlines announced easing the process for passengers to cancel or change their reservations, in anticipation of a possible US attack on Iran. This concerns the main civilian airlines in Israel including "El Al", "Yesrael", and "Arkia".
Evacuation preparations
Last Wednesday, the Israeli Minister of Transportation, Miri Regev, revealed that the Israeli civilian airlines had made preparations to evacuate their fleets from Israeli airports to various destinations around the world, in order to protect them from Iranian missiles in case of a US attack on Iran.
President Donald Trump threatened in the past few weeks to launch a military strike against Iran in response to how it handled the widespread protests in the country, and in the week before last, Trump seemed to retreat from his position, saying that Tehran had stopped plans to execute protesters that it had intended to carry out.
Nevertheless, the President reiterated last Thursday that a "huge military fleet" of the US is heading towards the Gulf region, saying "we are monitoring Iran".
