Israel announced that it had struck more than 300 targets of the Islamist movement on Monday Hezbollah In Lebanon, bombings left more than 180 dead and more than 700 injured, despite calls from the international community for restraint.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has denounced a “plan of destruction” carried out by Israel against his country, and called on the UN and “influential countries” to “dissuade” the Israeli government from this “aggression.”
Israeli airstrikes “in towns and villages in the south since this morning” have left 187 dead and 787 wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement. The previous toll was 100 dead and more than 400 wounded.
Hundreds of Lebanese fled the bombed areas in panic, a local official said. AFP photographers observed that around Sidon, a large city in the south of the country, there were major traffic jams as hundreds of cars full of families tried to leave the area.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with its bombings, Israel is reversing “the balance of power” in the north of the country, and explained that its policy “is not to wait for threats but to anticipate them.”
This wave of Israeli attacks against targets of the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah in southern and eastern Lebanon is the largest since the start of the war.
“More than 300 targets have been attacked so far. Hezbollah“the army said in a statement.
The army added that it is expanding the scope of its bombings and will carry out “large-scale” attacks in the Bekaa Valley, a stronghold of Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon. He therefore called on residents to stay away from the Islamist movement’s weapons depots, as he had done hours earlier when addressing the population in the south of the country.
For its part, Hezbollah announced that it had launched “dozens of rockets” against two Israeli bases “in response to the attacks of the Israeli enemy in the south and in [el valle de] “Bekah,” after having targeted three other Israeli targets in the morning.
“We are living under bombardment, we go to bed and wake up with it,” Wafaa Ismail, a 60-year-old housewife, told AFP in the village of Zautar in southern Lebanon.
According to the official news agency ANI, “inhabitants of Beirut and several regions” received phone calls from Israel asking them to evacuate.
Lebanese authorities have ordered the closure of schools in areas hit by shelling on Monday and Tuesday.
Hezbollah, a powerful political and military player in Lebanon, opened a front on the border with Israel almost a year ago, after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in support of its Islamist ally Hamas, in power in that Palestinian territory.
Artillery duels have increased since a wave of explosions involving beepers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants, blamed on Israel, last week, which left 39 dead and nearly 3,000 wounded in the militant group’s strongholds in Lebanon, according to officials.
“Threats will not stop us: we are prepared for all military scenarios” against Israel, said Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qasem, on Sunday, announcing a “new phase” in the battle against Israel, that of settling “unfinished business.”
Iran, an ally of Hezbollah, warned Israel on Monday of “dangerous consequences” for its attacks in Lebanon, and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas denounced a “savage aggression.”
Faced with this escalation, the United States, Israel’s main ally, has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon.
“We will do everything we can to prevent a broader war from breaking out,” President Joe Biden said.
China calls on its citizens to leave Israel “as soon as possible.”
“The region is on the brink of imminent catastrophe,” said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon.
Egypt said it feared a “full-scale war” in the Middle East and warned that the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could undermine efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army is continuing its devastating retaliatory offensive.
The war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, 2023, following an attack by the Palestinian Hamas movement in Israel, in which 1,205 people died, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people kidnapped during the Islamist incursion, 97 remain captive in the narrow territory, of whom 33 were declared dead by the Israeli army.
The Israeli offensive has caused the deaths of at least 41,455 Palestinians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health of this Hamas-ruled territory, considered reliable by the UN, and has caused a humanitarian disaster.
Source: Ambito
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