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Israel Suspends Commercial Flights to Paphos in Cyprus, Reasons Unspecified

FILE - A view of a Greek Air Force F-16 aircraft after landing at Cyprus' Andreas Papandreou Air Base near the southwestern coastal city of Paphos, Cyprus, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE - A view of a Greek Air Force F-16 aircraft after landing at Cyprus' Andreas Papandreou Air Base near the southwestern coastal city of Paphos, Cyprus, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
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Israel Suspends Commercial Flights to Paphos in Cyprus, Reasons Unspecified

FILE - A view of a Greek Air Force F-16 aircraft after landing at Cyprus' Andreas Papandreou Air Base near the southwestern coastal city of Paphos, Cyprus, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE - A view of a Greek Air Force F-16 aircraft after landing at Cyprus' Andreas Papandreou Air Base near the southwestern coastal city of Paphos, Cyprus, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

Israel has ordered the suspension of Israeli commercial flights to Paphos in Cyprus, Cypriot officials confirmed on Monday, for unspecified security reasons.
Domestic security agency Shin Bet ordered the suspension of flights to the airport, a terminal catering mainly to charter traffic on the western coast of Cyprus, late on Sunday night, reports from Israel said.
"The Republic of Cyprus is aware of the change in scheduling, for security reasons, of Israeli companies from and to Paphos airport. This happened some days ago," a Cypriot official told Reuters.
"Flights (from Israel) are continuing normally to Larnaca," the official added, referring to Cyprus' largest international airport.
Paphos is the smallest of Cyprus' two airports and abuts a military base slated for an upgrade by the US. According to its winter flight schedule available online, there are up to 10 flights a week from Tel Aviv and 7 flights a week from Haifa.

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Israel Arrests 2 Citizens on Suspicion of Working for Iran

Iranians walk past an anti-Israel billboard bearing a sentence in Farsi reading "Palestine is victorious", at Tehran's Palestine square on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Iranians walk past an anti-Israel billboard bearing a sentence in Farsi reading "Palestine is victorious", at Tehran's Palestine square on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Arrests 2 Citizens on Suspicion of Working for Iran

Iranians walk past an anti-Israel billboard bearing a sentence in Farsi reading "Palestine is victorious", at Tehran's Palestine square on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Iranians walk past an anti-Israel billboard bearing a sentence in Farsi reading "Palestine is victorious", at Tehran's Palestine square on January 22, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli authorities say they have arrested two Israeli citizens for allegedly conducting missions on behalf of Iran, the latest in a string of similar cases announced in recent months.

A statement from the Israeli police and the Shin Ben internal security agency on Monday said that Yuri Eliasfov and Georgi Andreev, residents of northern Israel, were in contact with an Iranian agent and carried out various missions under his instruction.

The missions included passing on classified military material obtained during Eliasfov’s military service in an air defense unit. It said the suspects also spray-painted graffiti and hung banners with pro-Iranian messages in various locations across the country, all allegedly in return for financial compensation.

The prosecution is expected to file an indictment against them in the coming days.

In September, an Israeli citizen was indicted for involvement in an Iranian assassination plot against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One month later, authorities arrested another Israeli who was allegedly involved in an Iranian plot to assassinate an Israeli scientist.

The Shin Bet says Iranian agents are known to use social media and promises of cash to try to enlist Israelis to carry out such missions.

Israel and Iran’s long-running shadow war has burst into the open over the past year, with the two countries directly exchanging fire in April and again in October.