Animation shows how planes fled Iranian airspace after Israeli strikes | Watch 9-second clip
Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria closed their air spaces after Israel hit military and nuclear facilities in Iran.
A nine-second video by an aircraft flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed aircraft exiting Iranian airspace after Israel launched strikes on the Middle Eastern country on Friday.
Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria closed their air spaces after Israel hit military and nuclear facilities in Iran. Follow LIVE updates.
Following the strikes and subsequent closure of the airspace, multiple global airlines cancelled flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and other Middle East destinations. Some also re-routed their planes.
Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, said it had cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran after Israel launched the strikes.
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Qatar Airways, the country's national carrier and one of the Middle East's largest, said it had "temporarily cancelled flights to Iran and Iraq due to (the) current situation in the region".
Air India also diverted and called back 16 flights between India and London and cities in Canada and the United States "due to the emerging situation in Iran".
Israel's airstrikes on Iran
Israel on Friday morning launched a wave of strikes at about 100 targets in Iran, including its nuclear facilities and military command centres under ‘Operation Rising Lion’. Several top leaders of Iran's military and scientists were also killed in the attack.
Israel, while justifying the move, said that it had intel indicating that Iran's nuclear programme had almost reached the ‘point of no return’.
On the other hand, Iran has called Israeli strikes a “declaration of war” with its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning Israel that it faces a "bitter and painful" fate.
