France, Spain, and Greece are battling widespread wildfires as Europe experiences intense heat waves. Emergency crews face relentless conditions with barely any pause between successive heatwaves and fire fronts throughout the summer.
Europe's wildfire emergency is escalating, with flames now spreading to Greece as part of a broader regional crisis. The situation affects multiple countries across the continent.
European air traffic control disruptions, including an outage in Greece that grounded thousands of flights on Sunday, are causing delays for aircraft flying to and from Israel. Denmark and other European countries are affected by the service failures.
Greece approved a multibillion-dollar purchase of Israeli air-defense and anti-drone systems establishing an "Achilles Shield" protective dome. The military modernization incorporates defensive lessons from Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia.
Greece's security council approved the purchase of a multi-layer air defense system from Israel worth €3.5 billion ($4 billion) on July 24. The purchase includes multiple types of drones and other military equipment.
From 2026-07-22 to 2026-07-23, Spain, France, and Italy battled intense wildfires as a heat wave swept southern Europe with temperatures reaching 44°C. By 2026, wildfires had burned more land across Europe than the annual average of the previous two decades, with additional heat waves forecast.