MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) - Israel decided to close airspace to civilian aircraft over its northern part of the country in the wake of reports on alleged Israeli airstrikes on Syria, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
The daily cited Israel’s leading airline Arkia as saying in a statement that after instructions from the Israeli Defense Ministry the airline was “forced to announce the cancellation of interior flights from Haifa to Eilat.”
Israel’s military deployed on Sunday two Iron Dome batteries to “northern cities due to tensions with Syria following the alleged IAF [Israeli Air Force] air strikes,” according to the daily.
The move came hours after Israel carried out what a Western intelligence official said was an airstrike in Damascus that attacked a shipment of Iranian-made missiles bound for Hezbollah.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Sunday in a letter sent to the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council that the “Israeli aggression" had killed and wounded several people and "caused widespread destruction.”
The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near Damascus and caused casualties.
