Israeli strikes against Hezbollah left 492 dead this Monday in Lebanon, including 35 childrenand 1,645 injured, the country’s authorities announced. They targeted the south of the country, the Bekaa plain, a important bastion of the pro-Iranian Islamist movement, and the capital Beirut. These bombings come after intense exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the spectacular explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies, attributed to Israel, which left 39 dead and 2,931 wounded. The strikes continued during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
This escalation in the region raises fears of an uncontrollable spiral, worrying the international community. From New York, where the UN General Assembly is being held, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that Paris was requesting the convening of a “Security Council emergency meeting on Lebanon this week“. “We are on the brink of total war”the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, expressed his alarm.
“Around 1,600 targets” of Hezbollah hit
The Israeli army confirmed that it had struck “approximately 1,600 terrorist targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley“. The army chief said that combat infrastructure, which the Islamist movement Hezbollah has been building for two decades, was hit. In one day, the Israeli army “neutralized tens of thousands of rockets and munitions“, said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, estimating that Hezbollah was living its “most difficult week since its creation” in 1982. The strikes continued during the night from Monday to Tuesday, the army said, targeting “dozens of Hezbollah targets in many areas of southern Lebanon“.
The army, which claims to have eliminated “a large number” members of Hezbollah, had asked the inhabitants of the Bekaa to move away from the weapons warehouses of the Islamist movement, repeating the same call made to the population of the south. A call reiterated by the Prime Minister who accuses Hezbollah of having made the Lebanese “human shields” by placing “rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garages.”
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Benjamin Netanyahu also claimed that Israel was reversing the “balance of power” in the north of the country, where it is determined to allow the return of tens of thousands of Israeli residents who fled the border area. Hezbollah, for its part, indicated that it had launched dozens of rockets in response into northern Israel, specifying that it had targeted “the main warehouses” army headquarters for the northern region of Israel, and a military barracks. It had announced earlier that it had struck three targets in the area. As the war front has shifted in recent days to Lebanon, Hezbollah has vowed to continue to attack Israel “until the end of the aggression in Gaza”.
Israeli airstrikes hit Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley on September 23 © AFP
These strikes are the deadliest since the start of cross-border firefights in October 2023. For nearly a year, Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israeli territory in support of the Palestinian Hamas, which is at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
A “targeted strike” in Beirut
The Israeli army said for its part that it had carried out “a targeted strike” in Beirut, without giving further details. This strike targeted, according to Hezbollah, the commander of the southern front of this formation, Ali Karaké. Hezbollah assured that the latter was unharmed.
Panic spread to the capital, where residents and offices received Israeli warning messages. “I received a message on my mobile phone saying ‘if you are in a building where Hezbollah weapons are located, stay away from the village until further notice'”Khaled, a resident of the capital, told AFP.
Thousands displaced
The relentless raids have forced hundreds of southerners, who had previously remained at home despite daily bombardments, to flee. In the coastal city of Tyre, further south, “Hundreds of people arrived” In a school sheltering displaced people, said Bilal Kachmar, an official with the disaster management agency, others “camping in the street”. “Others are sitting in the street and wait” to be housed, he added. Hundreds of cars carrying families were stuck in traffic jams in Saida, the big southern city, according to AFP photographers.
Nazir Rida, a journalist, hastily left Beirut to go under the bombs to look for his family, who live in the village of Babiliyah. “Nobody expected this sudden escalation. Our village was until now safe from the bombings,” he told AFP
Lebanese families fleeing the south of the country © AFP – FADEL ITANI
The international community is concerned
Egypt has called for UN Security Council intervention to end the “The dangerous Israeli escalation in Lebanon”warning of the risk of a “global regional war”. Iraq has said it wants a “urgent meeting” Arab countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to “stopper” Israel, which Turkey has accused of wanting “to lead the whole region into chaos.”
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian also accused Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy, of wanting “expand” the conflict, while the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expressed its “grave concern for the safety of civilians in southern Lebanon.”
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has “urged” their nationals to leave Lebanon and announced sending “a small number” additional military personnel in the Middle East. US President Joe Biden has reaffirmed “working towards de-escalation.” The new head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot “will coordinate” in New York with his main counterparts “to move resolutely towards the essential de-escalation” in Lebanon, its ministry said. Meanwhile, China has called on its nationals to leave Israel “as soon as possible” while the Kremlin said it was very worried.