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Beirut Flights Canceled, Delayed amid Fears of Israeli Attack

(FILES) Middle East Airlines' A321NEO plane is seen on the tarmac of Rafic Hariri international airport in the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by Roy ISSA / AFP)
(FILES) Middle East Airlines' A321NEO plane is seen on the tarmac of Rafic Hariri international airport in the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by Roy ISSA / AFP)
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Beirut Flights Canceled, Delayed amid Fears of Israeli Attack

(FILES) Middle East Airlines' A321NEO plane is seen on the tarmac of Rafic Hariri international airport in the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by Roy ISSA / AFP)
(FILES) Middle East Airlines' A321NEO plane is seen on the tarmac of Rafic Hariri international airport in the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by Roy ISSA / AFP)

Flights at Beirut airport have been canceled or delayed with Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA) saying disruptions to its schedule were related to insurance risks, as tensions escalate between Israel and armed political group Hezbollah.
Lufthansa on Monday said it had suspended five routes to and from Beirut by the group's carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings and Lufthansa up to and including July 30 "in an abundance of caution".
A rocket strike that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday has added to concerns that Israel and the Iran-backed group could engage in a full-scale war, Reuters said.
Israel's security cabinet on Sunday authorized the government to respond to the strike. Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since Hamas' Oct. 7 assault sparked the war in Gaza, which has since spread to several fronts.
Beirut airport's flight information board and flight tracking website Flightradar24 show Turkish Airlines also canceled two flights overnight on Sunday.
Türkiye-based budget carrier SunExpress, Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Air and MEA have also canceled flights scheduled to land in Beirut on Monday, Flightradar24 shows.
The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is Lebanon's only airport. It has been targeted in the country's civil war, and previous fighting with Israel, including in the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
On Sunday, MEA said it had delayed the departure of some flights set to land in Beirut overnight. Additional delays to flights landing on Monday were then announced due to "technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks for aircraft between Lebanon and other destinations", MEA said.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have increased cross-border exchanges of fire since the Gaza war began. The conflict has disrupted flights and shipping across the region, including during reciprocal drone and missile attacks between Israel and Iran in April.
Lufthansa has already suspended night-time flights to and from Beirut for July due to "current developments" in the Middle East.

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Lebanese Front’s Tunnels Used for Defense, Attack and Launching Missiles

In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
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Lebanese Front’s Tunnels Used for Defense, Attack and Launching Missiles

In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group faces Israeli air superiority and technological capabilities by going underground. The group has built a massive and complex network of tunnels in the South, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Bekaa regions.
The ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the southern Lebanese border, which erupted in October, has brought back the spotlight on these tunnels, which have been shown to be divided into 3 types.
The first are defensive tunnels that allow the party’s fighters to take shelter from aircraft raids. The second are offensive tunnels that the Israeli army said it destroyed in 2019, and the third group consists of small tunnels to hide rocket launchers and which appeared in one of the video clips broadcast by Hezbollah’s military media last month.
According to Israeli reports, Hezbollah started digging tunnels in the 1980s and 1990s, but those remained far from the border with Israel. However, in 2006, the Israeli media showed a tunnel that the Israeli army discovered during the July war inside Lebanese territory, and quoted officials as saying that the party’s construction of cross-border tunnels began before the start of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Concerned about tunnels extending into Israeli territory, Israeli authorities launched a campaign in 2018 to destroy this infrastructure, and announced in 2019, the end of its operation to raze all of Hezbollah’s cross-border attack tunnels.
The last tunnel that Israel destroyed stretched along 800 meters. The Israeli army said the tunnel extended over dozens of meters into Israel, and was dug to a depth of 55 meters, making it the deepest tunnel discovered by the army. The tunnel was equipped with electricity, had a railway to transport equipment and waste, exit stairs and other elements that made it more advanced than other passageways that were uncovered.
In 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the participation of the Israeli army, organized a field tour for 12 diplomats from UN Security Council member states, to show them the tunnel on the northern border with Lebanon.
Since the eruption of war on Oct. 8, Lebanese sources have confirmed that the Israeli army used bunker-piercing bombs to destroy tunnels suspected of being built by the party in the border area.
A report issued by the Alma-Israel Research Center said that after the 2006 Lebanon War, the party established a defensive plan to confront any possible Israeli invasion, with dozens of operations centers equipped with local underground networks and tunnels.
In addition to the previous two types of tunnels, Hezbollah media revealed a third category. Last month, the party’s media presented a report on the party’s artillery and weapons, and one of the clips showed a rocket launcher rising from the ground and launching a missile, indicating that the party hides these platforms underground.