El Al adds flights from nearby Greece and Cyprus to help stranded Israelis

El Al Israel Airlines and other local carriers are adding flights from nearby destinations such as Greece and Cyprus to help Israelis stranded overseas to travel back home after most foreign carriers suspended their routes to Tel Aviv over the imminent threat of an all-out war with Iran. “El Al is making every effort to respond to the needs of the public to keep the airspace between Israel and the world open and help Israelis stranded abroad following the cancellation of flights by foreign companies,” Israel’s flag carrier said in an e-mailed response. Some 150,000 Israelis are believed to be stranded abroad due to major foreign airlines’ suspensions of flights to and from Israel, according to reports in the Hebrew press. El Al said that its efforts in recent days to bring Israelis home, which included additional flights and the operation of larger aircraft on existing flights, increased the number of seats to and from Israel by about 8,000 seats since last Thursday. The slew of canceled flights comes as Iran has vowed to retaliate and attack Israel following last week’s back-to-back assassinations of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut by an Israeli strike and Hamas terror group leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, for which Israel has not taken responsibility.<br/>