FAA Bans All US Flights to Israel for 24 Hours

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines this morning canceled all flights to Israel indefinitely, reports the AP, after Israeli police confirmed that a rocket had landed near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. US Airways later canceled flights just for today, but then the FAA came out and banned all US flights to and from Israel for a period of 24 hours beginning around noon Eastern. European carriers didn't waste much time in following suit, notes the AP: Lufthansa has now suspended all flights for 36 hours, while Air France has suspended them until further notice.

Delta's decision came so suddenly that a New York-to-Tel Aviv flight over the Mediterranean was diverted to Paris instead. "We are in constant contact with the FAA and are monitoring the situation closely," says a rep for US Air's parent company, American Airlines. Business Insider notes that the airport is located in the town of Lod, which has had several "red alerts" since the latest escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas. (More Israel stories.)