Lebanon is witnessing its deadliest day in years as Israel attacks Hezbollah

More than 490 people have been killed, including 35 children, in intense and widespread Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said, on the deadliest day of conflict there in nearly 20 years.

Thousands of families are also reported to have fled their homes as the Israeli army said it has struck 1,300 Hezbollah targets in a campaign to destroy infrastructure the armed group has built since the 2006 war.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets into northern Israel, according to the military. The emergency services said that two people were injured by the explosives.

World powers have been encouraging restraint as both sides seem to be getting closer to a serious war.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed alarm at the tense situation and said he did not want Lebanon to “become another Gaza”.

President Joe Biden said the US was “working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely”, while the Pentagon announced it was sending “a small number” of additional troops to the Middle East “as a precaution”.

Nearly a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah sparked by the Gaza war has killed hundreds of people, mostly Hezbollah fighters, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah said it is acting in support of Hamas and will not stop until violence in Gaza ends. Both groups are backed by Iran and banned as terrorist organizations by Israel, the UK and other countries.

The Pentagon said it was sending a “small amount” of additional US troops to the Middle East amid the escalating crisis.

“Due to increasing unrest in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of US troops to augment our existing forces in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Pat Ryder said. press conference.

He would not answer any follow-up questions about the details.

Lebanese media said the first wave of Israeli attacks began around 06:30 local time (03:30 GMT) on Monday.

“It was scary, arrows flew over our heads. We were woken up by the sound of bomb blasts, we didn’t expect this,” said another woman.

Dozens of towns, villages and open spaces were targeted throughout the day in the districts of Sidon, Marjayoun, Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, Tyre, Jezzine and Zahrani in southern Lebanon, and the districts of Zahle, Baalbek and Hermel in the eastern Bekaa Valley. , according to the state-owned National News Agency (NNA).

In the evening, it reported that a building in the Bir al-Abed neighborhood south of the capital, Beirut, was hit by several missiles.

Lebanese security sources said the strike targeted Hezbollah’s top commander in southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, but it was not clear if he was killed. Hezbollah’s press office said Karaki was “okay” and had “moved to a safe place”.

The Ministry of Health in Lebanon said on Monday evening that 356 people died in the strikes and 1,246 were injured. It did not report how many of the wounded were soldiers or combatants, but said 24 children and 42 women were among the dead.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said that thousands of families have also been left homeless due to these strikes.

From the south to Beirut, roads were jammed as people scrambled to get out amid the bombings and after receiving audio and text messages from the Israeli army warning them to immediately leave buildings where Hezbollah was storing weapons.

The family of four who were on the motorcycle spoke to the BBC in Beirut during a stopover on their way to the northern city of Tripoli. “What do you want us to say? We just had to run away,” said the father worriedly.

Information Minister Ziad Makary said his department received a call from Israel asking it to leave its building in Beirut. However, he stressed that it would not be accompanied by what he called “psychological warfare”.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati, on the other hand, told a cabinet meeting: “Israel’s ongoing violence in Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word.”

“We are working as a government to stop this new Israeli war and avoid descending into the unknown,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Monday evening that its aircraft carried out strikes on approximately 1,300 Hezbollah terrorist sites in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley where it says rockets, missiles, explosives and drones were hidden. .

“In fact, we are looking at the fighting infrastructure that Hezbollah has been building for the past 20 years. This is very important,” IDF Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, told the administration in Tel Aviv.

“In the end, everything is focused on creating the conditions to return the citizens of the north to their homes.”

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said videos from southern Lebanon showed “a second explosion caused by Hezbollah weapons that were stored inside the buildings”.

“It is possible that some of the injured came from the second explosion,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the people of Lebanon to “get out of harm’s way now”.

“Hezbollah has been using you as human shields for a long time. Put rockets in your living room and missiles in your garage,” he said. “To protect our people from Hezbollah strikes, we must remove these weapons.”

An Israeli military official stressed that the IDF is “currently focused only on Israel’s air campaign” after being asked by reporters if a ground attack on southern Lebanon was imminent to create a buffer zone.

The official said that Israel has three goals – to undermine Hezbollah’s ability to fire rockets and missiles at the Lebanon-Israel border, to push its forces across the border, and to destroy infrastructure built by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force that could be used for attacks. Israeli communities.

Hezbollah has not commented on Israel’s allegations that it had hidden weapons in homes, and its press office announced that only one man had died on Monday evening.

But indicating that it is unlikely to back down, it said it responded to “attacks by Israel’s enemies” by firing rockets at several Israeli military bases in northern Israel, as well as a weapons production facility in the coastal area of ​​Zvulun. , north of the city of Haifa.

The IDF said 210 projectiles fell in Lebanon by evening, and that an unspecified number had hit the Lower and Upper Galilee regions, Haifa and the nearby areas of Carmel, HaAmakim and Hamifratz, and the Golan Heights.

Another house was badly damaged by a rocket in Givat Avni, Lower Galilee.

Resident David Yitzhak told the BBC that he, his wife and six-year-old daughter were unharmed because they were able to get behind the strong door of the house’s safe room moments before, when the siren went off.

“It is a meter from life to death,” he said.

Israel’s ambulance service said it treated two people who were wounded in pits in the Lower and Upper Galilee, while another was injured while rushing to a shelter.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched more than 150 rockets and drones across the border, while Israeli warplanes struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon.

Hezbollah remains a formidable force, despite being weakened by what Israel’s defense minister described as the group’s “toughest week” since its founding.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 39 people were killed and thousands injured after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded. Also on Friday, Hezbollah said at least 16 members, including top commanders of the elite Radwan Force, were among 45 people killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Beirut.

Speaking at the funeral on Sunday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group would not be disturbed.

“We have entered a new phase,” he said, “the title of which is the open war of reckoning.”

In the streets of Beirut, one young man told the BBC that he is “very afraid of the ongoing war” because “it will cause a big disaster, it will stop students from going to university”.

But another man was disrespectful and said: “Let’s not be afraid, we have to stop, we have to defend ourselves.”