The question for me is why did they get airborne if weather was causing problems on the departure routes. A commentator on the avherald who departed before AF states that he had to deviate off the SID due to weather. Did AF fly the SID or did they deviate?
Why did the commentator depart?
Should we ground all aircraft just because there is weather somewhere along the route? No, we fly, and deviate as needed.
Every now and then, not often, someone gets hail damage. It happens.
It happened, was dealt with, end of story.
BTW, bcgallacher, CBs in Saudi Arabia are very common.