10 foreign airlines cancel flights to Israel amid cross-border escalation with Hezbollah

Ten foreign airlines cancelled their flights to Israel on Sunday amid a cross-border escalation with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Anadolu news agency reported.

According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, major carriers, including Air France and the Dutch Transavia, have suspended their operations in Israel.

Other airlines that cancelled flights include the Hungarian Wizz Air, Malta-based Corendon, Ethiopian Airlines, the Greek Aegean Airlines, and the Greek Universal Airlines.

Air France, which cancelled its flights between Paris and Tel Aviv, was one of the few major international airlines still operating in Israel.

Since late July, 20 international airlines have cancelled their flights to Israel, driven by growing fears of a potential regional war in the Middle East.

Israeli warplanes launched over 40 air strikes on southern Lebanon early Sunday, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks with Hezbollah began on 8 October 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the strikes aimed to prevent an impending Hezbollah attack.

The Lebanese group, for its part, said it launched hundreds of missiles and drones deep into Israel in the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of its commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

Since 8 October 2023, Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with the Israeli army across the Lebanese-Israeli border, resulting in hundreds of casualties, mostly on the Lebanese side.

Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, and after the 30 July assassination of senior Hezbollah Commander, Fouad Shukr, in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since the 7 October Hamas incursion. The military campaign has reduced much of the Territory to rubble, and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

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