US AIRLINES were yesterday prohibited from flying to Israel by the US Federal Aviation Authority after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near Ben Gurion airport, damaging a house and wounding one Israeli civilian.

It followed two companies out of the three which fly to Israel cancelling their flights to the country.

The Israeli Transport Ministry said that it was trying to explain that the airport was “safe for landings and departures.”

“Ben-Gurion Airport is safe and completely guarded and there is no reason whatsoever that American companies would stop their flights and hand terror a prize.”

However, Tel Aviv may have difficulty convincing officials and the airlines in light of not only the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over the Ukrainian warzone but also the unreliability of Israeli official statements.

The government finally came clean yesterday over the fact that an Israeli soldier is posted as missing following a battle in the Gaza Strip, days after Hamas reported capturing him.

A defence ministry official said that the soldier was one of seven in a military vehicle hit by an anti-tank missile in a battle in Gaza over the weekend. The other six have been confirmed dead.

Israel’s UN ambassador initially denied the Hamas claim.

The Israeli military said that it had bombed more than 180 militant targets in Gaza, including concealed rocket launchers, a weapon manufacturing facility and surface-to-surface missile launchers.

However, Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji said that mosques, a sports complex and the home of a former Hamas military chief were also hit and the Palestinian death toll has now reached 609, the vast majority unarmed civilians, including dozens of children.

The bombing also killed six German citizens of Palestinian origin with not a peep from Berlin.

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon said yesterday that he felt that a ceasefire was close.

In the last three days he has met the head of the Arab League and Arab and Israeli leaders as well as US Secretary of State John Kerry.

“Suffice it to say, it is my hope and belief that these talks will lead to results and an end to the fighting in the very near future,” he said in Ramallah.