Despite Gaza violence, El Al takes flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto

Air Canada cancelled its overnight flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv last night after a rocket attack from Gaza landed near Tel Aviv’s international airport. But an El Al flight from Tel Aviv touched down in Toronto just after 6 this morning.

CHCH’s Jeyan Jeganathan spoke to some of the passengers, many of whom say they’re accustomed to the violence in Gaza.

“We were dropped off and my son said ‘I think I hear a siren’. And they, gradually, everybody gradually, understood what was happening. The staff came, and they brought us in, the staff were amazing, they were calm, they were careful, they brought everybody in as if it were their own family.”

“We all went downstairs, people from all over the world, being taken care of by this tiny country, Israel.”

Other passengers say hearing sirens going off is a normal occurrence for them; they weren’t concerned when they got to the airport and it was smooth sailing.

This comes after a missile landed near Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv prompting the United States to ban all American flights over Tel Aviv. Air Canada which is not bound under the U.S. ban halted its Toronto-Tel Aviv flight on its own. It will continue to evaluate the situation going forward.

Other international airlines including Air France and Holland’s KLM also cancelled flights last night.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada is unequivically behind Israel regardless of the situation going on there.