The death toll from fresh Israeli airstrikes on other towns in the southern Lebanese region of Samir on Monday has risen to 492, including 35 children and 58 women, and the Lebanese health ministry said it was the first day of fighting across the border. It has been called the ‘deadliest’ day of violence.
According to the French news agency AFP, Israel claimed to have killed a ‘large number’ of Hezbollah militants by targeting around 1,600 locations in southern and eastern Lebanon.
According to the Israeli military, the attacks included a ‘targeted strike’ on Beirut, dubbed ‘Operation Northern Arrow’.
Hezbollah has said its third-in-command, Ali Karake, is alive and has moved to safety after being targeted in an attack on the capital, Beirut, according to AFP sources.
Lebanese state media reported new raids in eastern Lebanon, while Hezbollah said it had hit five locations in Israel.
In the Israeli coastal city of Haifa, people were seen running for cover as air raid sirens sounded.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said that 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, were killed and 1,645 injured in Israel’s airstrikes.
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Obiad said that “thousands of families” had been displaced.
Smoke was seen billowing into the sky due to explosions near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.
Wafa Ismail, a 60-year-old Lebanese housewife from the southern village of Zawtar in Lebanon, told AFP: ‘We sleep and wake up to the bombing… this has become our life.’
International response
World powers have emphasized the need to end the war on Israel and Hezbollah.
France and Egypt demanded the intervention of the UN Security Council, while Iraq requested an emergency meeting of Arab states during the UN General Assembly session in New York.
Israeli army chief Herzi Halvi said the strikes damaged Hezbollah’s military infrastructure that had been under construction for two decades.
Israeli Defense Minister Yves Gallant called Monday a “significant peak” in the operation.
“This is the most difficult week for Hezbollah since its inception — the results speak for themselves,” he said.
“Activities at the start of the week resulted in entire units being pulled out of the battle in which several terrorists were injured.”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel was working to change the ‘security balance’ in the north.
Earlier, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said on Monday that 356 people were killed in the southern regions of Lebanon, including other cities, while more than 1,200 civilians were injured in the Israeli airstrikes.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Lebanese Minister of Health told a press conference on Monday that 21 children and 31 women have been killed so far in the Israeli attacks, while 1,246 people have been injured.
According to Reuters, a Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity that “Monday is the deadliest day for Lebanon since the 15-year civil war.”
The Israeli army is preparing for the next phase of its operation in Lebanon after airstrikes on Hezbollah positions on Monday morning, the head of the Israeli army has said.
A family fleeing a village in southern Lebanon after Israeli attacks on Lebanon take shelter in a public school in Sidon on September 23, 2024 (Mahmoud Zayat/AFP)
“Basically, we are targeting the war structure that Hezbollah has been building for the last 20 years,” he said. This is very important. We are targeting and preparing for the next phase.’
He did not give any details in this regard but said that he will explain it soon.
According to the Associated Press, thousands of Lebanese have started moving south, and the road from the southern coastal city of Sidon to Beirut is jammed with traffic. This is the largest displacement since the 2006 conflict.
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Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that it had hit nearly 300 targets in Lebanon on Monday and said it was targeting Hezbollah weapons depots.
The Israeli military says it is expanding its airstrikes to the areas of the Beqaa Valley along Lebanon’s eastern border. This is where Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said residents of the Beqaa Valley must immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it had fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli military post in Al-Jalil and for the second day in a row hit the facilities of the Rafale defense firm, which is headquartered in Haifa.
The National News Agency of Lebanon, the official news agency of Lebanon, says that the Israeli attacks also targeted the forest area of the central province of Byblos, located about 130 kilometers north of the border with Lebanon, but no one was reported injured there.
According to the news agency, Israel has also bombarded the northeastern areas of Baalbek and Harmel in Lebanon.
According to Lebanese media, residents in various cities across the country have received text messages urging them to move away from any buildings where Hezbollah stores weapons.
According to Lebanese media, the Arabic message said, “If you are in a building where there are weapons for Hezbollah, leave until further notice.”
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Maqari said in a statement that his office in Beirut had “received a recorded message asking people to leave the building.”
Last week, 39 people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured when thousands of communications devices, mostly used by Hezbollah members, exploded in various parts of Lebanon. Lebanon has blamed Israel for these attacks, but Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility for the attack.
Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel a day after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which it said was an attempt to pressure Israeli forces into supporting Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes and the conflict has steadily escalated over the past year.
Hundreds of people have lost their lives in Lebanon, while dozens of people have been killed in Israel and thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
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2024-09-24 07:12:18