Beirut airport was operational on Sunday but many passengers were stranded as flights were cancelled or delayed, an AFP correspondent said, after Israel and Hezbollah announced full-scale attacks amid an escalation in cross-border hostilities.

“We arrived at 4:30 a.m. (01:30 GMT) for our 8:00 a.m. flight, but they told us it was canceled,” said Elham Shukair, a passenger traveling to the United States via Jordan.

Sitting on her bag in the arrivals hall, she said that she had booked another flight with Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines for later on Sunday, hoping to reach Amman and catch her connecting flight there.

The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement has been engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militia’s attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered the Gaza war.

But Israel launched airstrikes on Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had foiled a large-scale Hezbollah attack, while the Lebanese group announced cross-border attacks of its own to avenge the killing of one of its top commanders, Fuad Shukr, in an Israeli strike last month.

Since Shukr’s murder, fears have grown that the cross-border violence could escalate into an open conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. The two countries last fought a devastating war in the summer of 2006.

During this war, Israel bombed Beirut Airport, Lebanon’s only international passenger terminal.

On Sunday, other passengers sat on the floor in the arrivals hall while screens displayed cancelled or delayed flights, while the arrivals area was largely empty.

“Our flight is still scheduled, but it is delayed,” said Diala Hatoum, who was planning to travel with her son on a Qatar Airways flight.

“We’ll see. Now we’ll wait,” she added.

Air France said it would suspend flights to Beirut scheduled for Sunday and Monday, but that this move could be extended depending on the situation in the Middle East.

Royal Jordanian Airlines announced the suspension of flights to Beirut “due to the current situation” and Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates also announced that it had also suspended its connections to and from the Lebanese capital.

On Friday, German airline Lufthansa announced that it was extending the suspension of its flights to Beirut until September 30.

The Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority stressed on Sunday that the airport was “functioning normally” despite some disruptions.

There is “no truth” to the rumors that all flights had been canceled, the agency said in a statement carried by the official national news agency.

Several airlines had already announced the suspension or cancellation of flights to Beirut in recent weeks, but some later resumed operations.

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