JERUSALEM

Ten foreign airlines canceled their flights to Israel on Sunday amid a cross-border escalation with the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

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

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

Air France, which canceled 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 canceled their flights to Israel, driven by growing fears of a potential regional war in the Middle East.

Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon early Sunday, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks with Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 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 October 8, 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.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 40,400 Palestinians since last Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi