Airlines cancel flights from San Diego International Airport to Tel Aviv
SAN DIEGO — Airlines have started to cancel flights from San Diego International Airport to Tel Aviv amid the ongoing conflict in Israel.
United has suspended operations from the Israeli capital until “conditions allow them to resume,” the airlines confirmed in a statement to FOX 5.
Meanwhile, Delta has also canceled all flights to Tel Aviv into this week, an airline spokesperson said. The airline added that they will be monitoring the situation and “make adjustments accordingly.”
“Customers impacted by canceled flights or who want to change their TLV ticket should check their Delta app, visit Delta.com or call Delta reservations to make adjustments,” the company continued in their statement.
FOX 5 has reached out to other airlines with scheduled flights from San Diego International Airport to Tel Aviv and is waiting to hear back.
Over the last day, several airlines have also worked with the U.S. government to bring back travelers to the U.S. after the attack began, including one that landed in Los Angeles from Tel Aviv Sunday morning.
According to a spokesperson, United did operate two flights out of Tel Aviv late Saturday and early Sunday after the onset of the conflict. The flight accommodated customers, crews and employee travelers who were at the airport, the airline added.
“The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority,” United added.
Live updates | Israel says it is at war after surprise Hamas attack
At this time, it is unknown if any direct or connecting flights from Tel Aviv will be landing in San Diego over the next day.
The attack on Israel was launched by militants with the group Hamas — a Palestinian Suni-Islamic fundamentalist group that contests Israel’s claim to land — early Saturday morning. The group fired thousands of rockets into Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip, a 140 square mile territory that is one of two where Palestinians reside, and also sent in ground forces.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel as of 3:50 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning, the White House said, and told the Israeli prime minister that “additional assistance for the Israeli Defense Forces” is now on the way to Israel.
That includes one of the U.S.’s most advanced aircraft carriers, which the Pentagon placed on alert to assist from its current position in the Mediterranean.
Throughout Sunday, pro-Palestinian groups took to cities across the country to call on the U.S. to withdraw this support for Israel, citing that aid would help continue the government’s decades-long military occupation that some United Nations experts have argued teeters on an apartheid system.
Elected officials and Jewish advocacy groups, however, continue to express devastation from the attack — many of whom saying that the violence was an example of anti-Semitism.
“It’s a very sad day,” Fabienne Perlov, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told FOX 5 Saturday. Along with many Jewish advocates in San Diego, she says she is currently mourning the attack and calling for peace, adding that “we cannot tolerate this type of activities from Hamas.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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