Germany’s Lufthansa extended a suspension of its flights to Tehran on Thursday with the Middle East on alert for Iranian retaliation for a suspected Israeli air strike on Iran’s embassy in Syria.
Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines are the only two Western carriers flying into Tehran, which is mostly served by Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines.
The region and the United States have been on alert for an attack by Iran since April 1, when Israeli warplanes are suspected to have bombed the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to call for “maximum restraint” on all sides and avoiding further escalation.
Lufthansa said it had suspended flights to and from Tehran until probably April 13, extending its suspension by two days, to avoid its crew having to disembark to spend the night in the Iranian capital.
“Last weekend it was decided not to operate a flight to Tehran with a layover for the crew due to the security situation,” a spokesperson said. “On the route, the crew has to spend the night in Tehran before the return flight to Frankfurt. We want to avoid disembarking for safety reasons.”
Austrian Airlines, which is owned by Lufthansa and flies from Vienna to Tehran six times a week, said it was still planning to fly on Thursday but was adjusting timings to avoid an overnight layover.
“The Austrian Airlines flight to Tehran scheduled for today will take place, but will depart from Vienna several hours late in order to minimize the time between landing and departure in Tehran,” a spokesperson said.
Iranian air space is also a key overflight route for Emirates’ and Qatar Airways’ flights to Europe and North America.
Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot and Air Arabia, among the airlines which fly to Tehran, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Flydubai said its flights to Iran are still currently scheduled to operate.
Businesses in Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey were closed for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.
“Avoiding further regional escalation must be in everyone’s interest. We urge all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint,” the German foreign ministry said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Israel is keeping up its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other areas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, amid concern that Iran was preparing to strike Israel in response for the killing of senior Iranian commanders.
“Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively,” he said in comments released by his office following a visit to the Tel Nof air force base in southern Israel.
Israel chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said civilians were not being told to make any special preparations but added Israel was “highly prepared for a range of scenarios.”
Netanyahu made his comments as Israeli troops and warplanes started an operation in central Gaza overnight which the military said was aimed at destroying infrastructure of armed Palestinian groups.
Most Israeli troops have been pulled out of Gaza, in preparation for an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, but fighting has continued in various areas of the enclave.
Residents and militants said fighters have engaged in gun battles with Israeli forces, which attacked the northern and southern areas of the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp. Israeli strikes from air, ground, and the sea, which so far have destroyed several buildings including two mosques, were almost non-stop, they said.
“It was as if the occupation army was launching a new war,” Raouf Abed, 20, said via chat app from Deir Al-Balah to the south of Al-Nuseirat refugee camp. “The explosions were non-stop, the sounds came from different directions,” he said.
“Every time we hope there will be a ceasefire, Israel escalates the aggression, as if they are trying to pressure Hamas by hitting on us, the civilians,” he said.
The fighting in Gaza, now in its seventh month, has overshadowed the increasingly tense situation further north where Israeli troops have engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militia fighters across the border in Lebanon.
On Thursday, the military said Israeli jets hit Hezbollah military targets in the areas of Meiss el Jabal, Yarine, and Khiam, as well as a Hezbollah observation post in the area of Marwahin and another compound in Al-Dahira in southern Lebanon.
The Iranian-backed militia, which is thought to have a large arsenal of missiles, has long been considered to be one of the most likely forces that Tehran could use against Israel but so far, both sides have held back from a full scale confrontation.
Israeli military strikes killed 63 Palestinians and wounded 45 others in the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
At least 33,545 Palestinians have now been killed since the Israeli offensive began, the ministry said, with most of the 2.3 million population displaced and much of the enclave laid to waste.
The war began when Hamas led an attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage. Around 130 are still being held incommunicado in Gaza, Israel says.
Hamas said on April 9 that an Israeli proposal on a ceasefire in their war in Gaza met none of the demands of Palestinian militant factions, but it would study the offer further and deliver its response to mediators.
Reuters