- A British Airways flight was diverted minutes away from landing.
- Rockets were flying around and air raid sirens were going off in Tel Aviv, per the BBC.
A British Airways flight was forced to make a U-turn when it was minutes away from landing at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday.
Data from FlightAware shows that the Airbus A350 was flying over Israel when it abruptly reversed course back to London Heathrow Airport.
According to the BBC, air raid sirens went off in Tel Aviv as the aircraft was approaching, so British Airways told the captain to return to the UK.
A spokesperson for the Israel Airports Authority told the BBC that rockets were flying around Tel Aviv at the time but were not an immediate threat to the flight.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Saturday after the Islamist militant group launched a surprise assault. Israeli officials said more than 1,200 people in Israel have been killed in the Hamas attacks, and 1,100 people have been killed in Gaza as Israel fought back with air and artillery strikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The United Nations said that 338,000 people have fleed Gaza as a result.
The London to Tel Aviv flight usually takes about 5 hours, but passengers on Wednesday's BA165 were onboard for almost ten hours as the plane returned to its starting point, per FlightAware.
Shortly after it landed, British Airways announced that it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv up to and including Saturday.
"Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation we're suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv," said a spokesperson for the airline, in a statement shared with Insider.
"We're contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologise and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date.
"We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely," they added.
Several major airlines including United and American suspended flights to Israel earlier in the week. Ben Gurion, Israel's only international airport, is still open. Israeli airlines El Al, Israir, and Arkia, as well as Etihad and FlyDubai, are among those who are still flying there, FlightAware data shows.