Yahoo Finance International flights cancelled over safety fears after Israel assembles troops at Gaza border
An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip
(AP)Hundreds of international flights to Tel Aviv were cancelled over safety fears, after Israeli troops massed at Gaza‘s border.
Days of violence between Jewish Israelis and the country's Arab minority worsened, with synagogues attacked and fighting breaking out on the streets of some communities.
With concern growing that the violence that flared on Monday could spiral out of control, the United States is sending an envoy, Hady Amr, to the region.
However, efforts to end the worst hostilities in years appear so far to have made no progress.
In renewed air strikes on Gaza, Israel struck a six-storey residential building in Gaza City that it said belonged to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave.
At least 103 people have been killed in Gaza, including 27 children, over the past four days, Palestinian medical officials said. On Thursday alone, 49 Palestinians were killed in the enclave, the highest single-day figure since Monday.
Seven people have been killed in Israel: a soldier patrolling the Gaza border, five Israeli civilians, including two children, and an Indian worker, Israeli authorities said.
Brigadier-General Hidai Zilberman said Israel was "building up forces on the Gaza border", a deployment that has raised speculation about a possible ground invasion, a move that would recall similar incursions during Israel-Gaza wars in 2014 and in 2009.
Israeli military affairs correspondents, who are briefed regularly by the armed forces, have said however that a major ground operation is unlikely, citing high casualties among the risks.
It comes as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and Iberia all cancelled flights to Tel Aviv.
Palestinian militants have repeatedly shelled the Tel Aviv area during hostilities that erupted on Monday, raising safety concerns over Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main airport, and prompting it to reroute some flights to Ramon Airport, some 200 km (125 miles) to the south, which serves Eilat.
Virgin Atlantic cancelled its flights to Tel Aviv for Wednesday and Thursday.
Spanish airline Iberia also cancelled its flight to Tel Aviv from Madrid on Thursday and back on Friday a spokeswoman said, while Germany's Lufthansa also cancelled its flights.
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