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Airlines Avoid Some Mideast Airspace, Cancel Flights

People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Airlines Avoid Some Mideast Airspace, Cancel Flights

People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Airlines are avoiding Iranian and Lebanese airspace and cancelling flights to Israel and Lebanon, as concerns grow over a possible conflict in the region after the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah members this week.

Singapore Airlines on Friday appeared to no longer be using Iranian airspace for any of its routes, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

Taiwan's EVA Air and China Airlines also appeared to be avoiding Iran airspace for flights to Amsterdam on Friday which previously had flown over Iran, Flightradar24 data showed.

In a bulletin, OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information, advised traffic between Asia and Europe to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace, a day after sources told Reuters that top Iranian officials will meet the representatives of Iran's regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to discuss potential retaliation against Israel.

Many airlines, including US and European airlines, already avoid flying over Iran, especially since the reciprocal missile and drone attacks in April between Iran and Israel.

Singapore Airlines' flight to London Heathrow early on Friday went north of Iran through Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, rather than crossing through Iran as it did the day before, Flightradar24 showed.

However, a significant number of airlines on Friday were still flying over Iran, including United Arab Emirates carriers Etihad, Emirates and FlyDubai, as well as Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

Over the past two days, Air India, Germany's Lufthansa Group, US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air, and Italy's ITA Airways said they had suspended flights to Tel Aviv.

Airlines this week have also been cancelling and delaying flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut after a strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Israel has blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which denied involvement.

Canada on Thursday issued a notice to Canadian aircraft to avoid Lebanese airspace for one month due to the risk to aviation from military activity.

Britain has for the past month advised pilots of potential risk from anti-aircraft weaponry and military activity in Lebanon's airspace.

Should an all-out war break out in the Middle East, OpsGroup said civil aviation will likely face the risk of drones and missiles crossing airways, as well as the increased risk of GPS spoofing - a growing phenomena around Lebanon and Israel where militaries and other actors broadcast signals that trick a plane's GPS system into thinking it is somewhere it is not.

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Israeli Military Sets up Roadblocks in Southern Lebanon, Announces It Won’t Withdraw by Deadline

This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Sets up Roadblocks in Southern Lebanon, Announces It Won’t Withdraw by Deadline

This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)

Israel's military Saturday set up roadblocks across border towns and roads in a strategic valley in southern Lebanon, a day before the deadline for it to withdraw from the area under an agreement that halted its war with the Hezbollah group.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, confirmed that it will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday as outlined in the ceasefire agreement.

The deal that went into effect in late November gave both sides 60 days to remove their forces from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area, along with UN peacekeepers. Israel says Hezbollah and the Lebanese army haven’t met their obligations, while Lebanon accuses the Israeli army of hindering the Lebanese military from taking over.

In a statement Saturday, the Israeli military said the agreement is progressing. But it said in some sectors, “it has been delayed and will take slightly longer.”

The Lebanese military has said that they had deployed in areas following Israeli troops’ withdrawal, and in a statement Saturday accused the Israeli military of “procrastinating” in their withdrawal from other areas.

Washington appears to support an extension of this withdrawal phase.

While Lebanese army soldiers are dispersed across the south’s western sector, Israeli troops remained in control of most of the southeastern sector.

Members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have unexpectedly moved and set up several roadblocks, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced Lebanese people trying to return to their villages.

In Mais al-Jabal, peacekeepers from a Nepalese battalion watched in their position along the UN-mandated Blue Line as an Israeli jet flew overhead following the sound of what they said was an Israeli controlled demolition of a building.

There are no residents left in that town and the vast majority of the buildings seen by Associated Press journalists were reduced to rubble or pancaked after intense Israeli shelling and airstrikes, following by clashes during its ground invasion. The few that stood had their walls blown out and are badly damaged. The piles of rubble and debris on the road make it impossible for civilian cars to enter the town that once was home to a few thousand people.

The scene is similar in neighboring towns, including Blida and Aitaroun, where almost all the structures have collapsed into mounds of rubble and no residents have returned.

The peacekeepers tried to appeal for permission to move across the roadblocks, but were not authorized to do so. An AP crew that had joined UNIFIL on patrol was stranded as a result.

“There is still a lot of IDF (Israeli army) activity going on in the area,” said Maj. Dinesh Bhandari of UNIFIL’s Nepalese battalion in Mays al-Jabal overlooking the Blue Line. “We are waiting for the deconfliction and then we will support to deploy the LAF (Lebanese army) in that position.”

When asked about weapons belonging to Hezbollah, Bhandari said they had found caches of weapons, munitions and mines in some structures during their patrols.

Israel says it has been taking down the remaining infrastructure left by the Hezbollah, which has a strong military and political presence in the south. Israel since its ground incursion into Lebanon said it also targeted a tunnel network, and has conducted large-scale demolition of buildings in a handful of border towns.

Lebanese officials have complained that the Israeli military is also destroying civilian homes and infrastructure.

In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun pointed to the “destruction of villages adjacent to the southern border and the bulldozing of lands, which will hinder the return of residents to their areas,” according to the state-run National News Agency. France, along with the US, is a guarantor of the ceasefire deal.

Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of over 1 million displaced during the war. Large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs were destroyed in Israeli bombardments.