Flight from Eilat lands at Ben Gurion airport amid rocket barrage from Gaza

An Arkia Airlines flight from Eilat landed safely at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Friday, as a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip on the center of the country flew by. As shocked passengers watched the Iron Dome missile defense system in action through the plane windows, sirens wailed in towns and cities surrounding the international airport, including Kfar Chabad, Or Yehuda and Rishon Lezion, alerting residents on the ground to take shelter. Tel Aviv, Rehovot and Bat Yam were also targeted in the missile attack. There were no casualties in the barrage. Unlike fighter jets, passenger airplanes aren’t able to move quickly enough to dodge missiles, retired Air Force commander Eitan Ben Eliyahu told Channel 12 news on Saturday. Instead, he explained, pilots can fire up the engines and climb to a higher altitude in order to land on a different runway, or even a different airport if fuel allows. “There is some risk, but it’s relatively low,” Ben Eliyahu added. Videos filmed on cellphones from the window of the Embraer airliner showed the Iron Dome interceptions, along with expressions of fear and awe from passengers.<br/>