Destroyed in 3 weeks… Lebanon, Israel attack, worst disaster ever

Photo = AFP In Lebanon, the number of casualties approached 10,000 due to Israel’s large-scale air strikes that continued every day in less than three weeks.

According to Yonhap News, the U.S. CNN reported this on the 4th (local time), citing the local health department. Of the 9,000 casualties, the death toll exceeded 1,400, including 127 children. The number of injured approached 7,500.

In particular, it was calculated that at least 558 people died on the 23rd of last month alone. Among them, it was determined that there were 50 children and 94 women.

Israel said the airstrikes were aimed at Hezbollah, a pro-Iran armed faction in Lebanon. However, it is estimated that civilian casualties will also be significant. There are predictions that if Israel continues airstrikes and expands ground warfare, casualties will soon reach 10,000.

Air Wars, a British conflict monitoring group, pointed out that Israel’s airstrikes were “the most intense air operations carried out in the world in the past 20 years.”

Photo = REUTERS The Israeli military announced that it carried out 3,000 airstrikes using 2,000 rounds of ammunition on the 24th and 25th of last month alone. This is an unprecedented scale compared to the scale of airstrikes carried out by the United States during the 20-year war in Afghanistan starting in 2001.

Israel said it was taking steps to reduce civilian casualties, including making phone calls and sending text messages to residents of the buildings targeted to evacuate.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health estimates that more than 1 million people, one-fifth of the total population, have fled. It is known that among the refugees, children and women are suffering greatly. Most people in emergency shelters appeared to be children.

Since Israel began its war against the local armed political faction Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October last year, there have been about 9 attacks against Hezbollah, and about 1,500 attacks by Hezbollah. Most of Israel’s airstrikes have been aimed at southern Lebanon, near the border, but it has recently strengthened its attacks on the capital, Beirut.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Israeli military is targeting the city center rather than the outskirts of Beirut. Currently, evacuation orders have been issued for more than 100 villages in southern Lebanon, raising concerns about the expansion of the Israeli military’s ground warfare.

Kim Se-rin, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]