The Australian government has raised its travel advice level regarding Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
In an update on Monday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Smartraveller website said it had reviewed its advice for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories — the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).
It now advises Australians “do not travel” to either area “due to the volatile security situation, armed conflict, civil unrest and terrorism”.
Australians in Israel “should leave while commercial flights remain available, border crossings are open” and it’s “safe to do so”, the update added.
“There’s an ongoing threat of missile and rocket attacks in Israel. You should not travel to Israeli border areas with Lebanon,” it continued.
“There continues to be a high threat of military and terrorist attacks against Israel and Israeli interests across the region. The security situation could deteriorate quickly, with little or no notice. This situation has and may continue to result in airspace closures, flight cancellations, diversions, and other travel disruptions.”
Smartraveller’s previous advice to Australians was to “reconsider their need to travel to Israel” and, if they were in Israel, to “reconsider whether you need to remain and, if not, depart when it’s safe to do so”.
Australians have been since Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire in October last year, adjacent to the Israel-Hamas war.
Conflict between Israel and Lebanon has spiralled since late September when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded — killing at least 39 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon — in an attack the group blamed on Israel.
Since Israel started its recent wave of strikes on targets in and around Lebanon in September, more than 1,300 people have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry, and more than a million have been displaced.
On Sunday, Hezbollah in Binyamina in northern Israel with drones.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed, and another seven were severely injured, according to the Israeli military.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since the Palestinian group Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government.
Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 7 has killed more than 42,000 people in the enclave, according to the Gazan health ministry, and displaced much of its population.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza have intensified in recent days.
On Monday, an Israeli airstrike that hit the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza Strip’s city of Deir Al-Balah killed four Palestinians and injured dozens.
A day earlier, at least 22 Palestinians were killed when Israeli tank shells hit a school sheltering displaced families in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The final Australian government-assisted flights out of Lebanon have left the country, following months of warnings for citizens and their families to leave as the security situation worsened.
Repatriation flights stopped after a lack of demand as planes returned with empty seats.
A total of 3,170 Australians, permanent residents and family members have left Lebanon, and just over 2,550 have landed in Australia on repatriation flights.
In late September, the government warned Australian travellers about rising tensions from conflict in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories affecting neighbouring countries.
In an update to its travel advice for a dozen countries, Smartraveller warned Australian travellers that “ongoing conflict in Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories could lead to increased tensions in other locations in the Middle East”.
With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and the Australian Associated Press
