At Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, flight cancellations and delays have become commonplace, following an announcement from Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) that these disruptions are due to insurance risks. The underlying cause of the chaos stems from escalating tensions between Israel and the armed political group Hezbollah.

In response to the situation, Lufthansa has suspended five routes to and from Beirut through its subsidiaries Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings, and Lufthansa itself until July 30, citing an “abundance of caution.” This decision follows a rocket attack that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, raising concerns that Israel and the Iran-supported Hezbollah could enter into a large-scale war.

Israel’s security cabinet has granted the government permission to respond to this attack, while Hezbollah has denied any responsibility for the incident. This attack marks the deadliest since Hamas’s assault on October 7, which triggered a conflict in Gaza that has now expanded to multiple fronts.

Flight data from Beirut airport, along with Flightradar24, indicates that Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights overnight leading into Sunday. Other airlines, including the Turkish low-cost carrier SunExpress, AJet (a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines), Greek Aegean Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and MEA, have also cancelled scheduled flights to Beirut on Monday. The airlines have yet to comment on the situation.

Beirut’s airport is the only airport in Lebanon and has previously been targeted in attacks during the country’s civil war and in earlier confrontations with Israel, including the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. MEA also reported that some flights scheduled to arrive in Beirut overnight were delayed due to technical issues related to the distribution of insurance risks for flights between Lebanon and other destinations.

Tensions between Hezbollah and the Israeli military have intensified with ongoing crossfire since the start of the war in Gaza. The conflict has impacted both air travel and shipping in the region, including reciprocal drone and missile strikes between Israel and Iran that occurred in April.

Given the current pressure on air travel in the region, it appears that flights to and from Lebanon are likely to remain problematic in the near future.