Mourners attend a funeral for the victims of an Israeli air strike in the Lebanese village of Maaysra, east of the coastal town of Byblos
Mourners attend a funeral for the victims of an Israeli air strike in the Lebanese village of Maaysra. AFP

Australia has issued an advisory against travelling to Israel and urged its citizens to leave the country while commercial flights were still available, due to the ongoing threat from missile and rocket attacks.

The Australian government issued its highest-level travel warning for the entire country of Israel for the first time since Oct. 7, when the Israel-Hamas conflict began. Earlier, citizens were warned against travelling to occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Iran and certain nearby countries.

The latest sanction comes a day after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated its travel advice for Israel, citing the "ongoing threat of missile and rocket attacks," ABC News reported.

"We now advise do not travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories due to the volatile security situation, armed conflict, civil unrest and terrorism," the advice reads.

In recent days, Israel has expanded its military operations into Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, targeting the Hezbollah militant group based there.

On Monday, Israel launched an airstrike in northern Lebanon that killed at least 21 people, according to health officials, while Israelis sought shelter as projectiles were fired back across the border. Four Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday in a Hezbollah drone strike.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Israel was a "dangerous place at the moment."

"What we do is we take advice from our security agencies and the government then implements that advice," Albanese said. "We know that travelling into an area where there is conflict is a dangerous thing to do and it is appropriate that the federal government make announcements in accordance with that advice from security agencies."

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, too, urged Australians to refrain from travelling to Israel.

"The announcement having been made, Australians should heed the advice of the government and not travel when they're advised not to travel," he said. "It's based on intelligence, or it's based on security assessments, and we don't want Australians going into harm's way."

Meanwhile, the Australian government on Tuesday issued financial sanctions and travel bans against five Iranians associated with the country's missile program, following similar bans by Britain and the United States.

The bans were imposed against two directors and a senior official from Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, and two directors of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group.

Sanctions were announced a fortnight after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, which was described by Foreign Minister Penny Wong as a "dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war."