Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a state memorial ceremony for Zeev Jabotinsky, founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, August 4, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Jerusalem: Israel went into a new workweek in a state of deep uncertainty Sunday, with the potential for attacks by Iran and the militant groups it supports already causing disruptions for many.
A number of international airlines have suspended flights to and from Israel pending expected retaliation against the country by Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. That has left tens of thousands of Israelis unable to come home, according to an Israeli official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Delta, United, the Lufthansa group and Aegean Airlines were among those that suspended services to Israel after the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shukur, in a strike in Beirut on Tuesday, and the killing early Wednesday of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iran. The fear is that the responses to the killings could be the start of a wider regional war.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is asking citizens traveling abroad to fill out an online survey to help the government map where they are and try to organize solutions, including alternative commercial flights. Most are believed to be stuck in Europe and the United States.
Israel’s national carrier, El Al, and its subsidiaries are trying to add more flights to ferry Israelis home, but their ability to do so is limited: At the height of the summer, with school out, the Israeli airlines were already operating at full capacity.
Over the weekend, amid fears of a broadening conflagration, Britain, Canada, France and the United States were among the countries urging their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately.
For Israel, the travel disruptions added to the sense that it was no longer in control of its own fate and had no clear plan for quieting its many conflicts.
Analysts said the Israeli government was waiting, instead, to see how much damage might be inflicted by any Iranian and Hezbollah retaliatory action. Only then, they said, would Israel decide on the strength of any subsequent response, and whether to work to contain the situation or risk further escalation that could spiral into an all-out regional war.