American billionaire Michael Bloomberg has said that he was flying to Tel Aviv to show solidarity with Israel and urged United States to allow flights to and from Israel.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned on U.S. Airlines from flying to and from the main airport of Israel at Tel Aviv for the next 24 hours, while lifting the ban will be reconsidered at the end of 24-hour ban, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The former mayor of New York announced in a statement via his Twitter account that he was boarding an Israeli airlines flight “to show solidarity with the Israeli people and to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel,” and urged FAA to “permit US airlines to fly to Israel”.

This initiative of Bloomberg is in contrast with the United States government which believes that suspending the flights to Israel protects U.S. citizens from possible attacks by Hamas rockets.