Amid rocket fire from Gaza, officials divert incoming flights from Ben Gurion

In a bid to minimize exposure of civilian air travel to rocket fire from Gaza, official say incoming passenger flights will now be diverted from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv to Ramon Airport in the south.

Passengers will disembark at Ramon. The empty planes will then fly to Ben Gurion to take on new passengers, and then depart from Ben Gurion to their destinations abroad.

The decision is meant to broaden the air corridor taken by passenger flights in and out of the country and to minimize the numbers of passenger-filled planes on the ground at any one place in order to lower the chances that rocket fire from Gaza will hit a plane.

Freight aircraft and private planes will still be allowed to land at Ben Gurion Airport, an Israel Airports Authority spokesman says.