JERUSALEM: According to authorities, Israel carried out airstrikes against hundreds of Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing 492 people and driving tens of thousands more to seek shelter on what was the worst day in decades for Lebanon.
Following some of the most intense cross-border gunfire since hostilities broke out in October of last year, Israel issued an evacuation order for residents of Lebanon, claiming that the armed movement was stockpiling weapons in some regions.
Israel is turning its attention to its northern border, where Hezbollah has been launching missiles into Israel to support its ally Hamas, after nearly a year of fighting Hamas in Gaza on its southern border.
In its most extensive strikes to date, Israel’s military targeted Hezbollah on Monday in the northern area close to Syria, the eastern Bekaa valley, and the southern part of Lebanon.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 1,645 people had been injured and 492 people had died, including 35 children and 58 women. It was Lebanon’s highest daily death toll from violence since the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990, according to a Lebanese official.
As Israel increased its attacks in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the country was facing “complicated days” and urged Israelis to maintain their unity during the campaign.
In a message sent out after a situation assessment at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, he stated, “I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north—that is exactly what we are doing.”
The Israeli military reported that it had attacked over 800 locations in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley region that were purportedly affiliated with Hezbollah. The military stated in a statement that “buildings where Hezbollah hid rockets, missiles, launchers, UAVs and additional infrastructure” were among the targets hit.
It was not possible for Reuters to independently confirm Israel’s claim that Hezbollah has weapons caches in houses and villages.
Hezbollah has stated it does not deploy military infrastructure close to civilian areas, but it has not responded to Israeli accusations that it concealed weapons in homes.
Hezbollah claimed to have fired dozens of missiles toward a military installation in northern Israel in retaliation for the strikes.
Alerts were activated in the northern region of the occupied West Bank on Monday as Hezbollah rocket fire spread southward from the northern Israeli border areas, which have been targeted most severely in the most recent gunfight.
According to the military, there were additional alarms in other parts of northern Israel, notably the port city of Haifa.
There would be more attacks in Lebanon. According to an Israeli military official, Israeli planes are getting ready to strike Hezbollah’s strategic weaponry in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley. They are urging civilians to leave right away.
The strikes have increased the pressure on Hezbollah, which was hit by an attack last week that its Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, described as unprecedented in the organization’s history after thousands of its members’ pagers and walkie-talkies blew up.
