SWEDEN and Slovenia have issued strong warnings urging their citizens to avoid travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories due to rising tensions in the region.
“Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tightened Sweden’s travel warning regarding Israel and Palestine. From now on, there is a strong warning against all travel to both countries,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on social media X on Thursday (1/8).
Kristersson called on Swedes to take the decision seriously because the security situation in the Middle East is serious and could deteriorate rapidly.
Similarly, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement urging its citizens to stay away from and avoid travel to Israel, Iran and Lebanon.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also highlighted the serious security concerns in Lebanon and advised Slovenian citizens currently there to leave the country immediately.
Security tensions in Israel have been high after Tel Aviv announced the killing of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut on Tuesday night (30/7). Hezbollah confirmed Shukr’s killing on Wednesday night (31/7).
Hours later, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said that Israel assassinated Hamas’s political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in an airstrike targeting his residence in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Haniyeh was there because he received an invitation to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Fears are growing of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah amid months of cross-border firefights.
The escalation comes amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza that has killed nearly 39,500 people since October following Hamas attacks. (Ant/Z-2)
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