Iran bombarded around 200 missiles into Israel on Tuesday evening, escalating the years-long conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies. A chilling video, reportedly recorded from a British Airways flight around Israel, has emerged, showing an orange glow streaking across night sky – suggesting that Iran failed to confirm that airways were clear before launching the attack.
The video was shot by the pilot of the Dubai-bound British Airways flight, reported New York Post. Several missiles, looking like orange fireballs, can be seen flying back-to-back in the night sky in the footage.
The British Airways flight was safely diverted, the report added.
All the airlines scrambled to divert their flights from the Middle East after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel without warning. According to a spokesperson for tracking service FlightRadar24, flights diverted “anywhere they could”, reported Reuters.
Around 80 flights, operated by Emirates, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways and bound for major Middle East hubs such as Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi were diverted to places such as Cairo and European cities.
Airports in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria immediately suspended flights in and out of their airports. However, Iraq and Jordan later re-opened their airspace to civilian flights using their airports.
Iran’s warning to Israel
Shortly after the missile attack on Israel, Iran warned that it would carry out “crushing attacks” against Israel if it retaliated to the missile attack. According to Iran, the attack was “entirely defensive” and a response to the Israeli killings of militant leaders and strikes in Lebanon.
However, Israel has vowed to retaliate to Iran’s attack, saying it would respond at the “time and place of its choosing”. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the missile attack was a failure and that Iran would soon learn a painful lesson, just as its enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and other places have learned.
“Whoever attacks us. We attack them,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
