Lebanon sees deadliest day in years as Israel steps up strikes on Hezbollah

Reuters Smoke billows following an Israeli strike near Tyre, southern Lebanon (23 September 2024)Reuters

Smoke rose from areas close to the southern Lebanese metropolis of Tyre throughout the first wave of Israeli strikes on Monday morning

Greater than 350 individuals have been killed and 1,200 injured in intense Israeli air strikes throughout Lebanon, the nation’s well being minister says, after Israel warned it was “deepening” its assaults on the armed group Hezbollah.

1000’s of individuals additionally fled their houses because the Israeli navy mentioned it struck greater than 800 Hezbollah targets and advised civilians to evacuate areas close to the Iran-backed group’s positions.

Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel following the strikes. Israeli paramedics mentioned one particular person was injured by shrapnel.

It’s the deadliest day in virtually a yr of escalating cross-border combating that has heightened fears of all-out struggle.

UN Secretary Basic António Guterres mentioned on Sunday that he feared such a battle might flip Lebanon into “one other Gaza”.

Eleven months of combating between Hezbollah and Israel sparked by the struggle in Gaza have killed tons of of individuals, most of them Hezbollah fighters, and displaced tens of 1000’s on each side of the border.

Hezbollah has mentioned it’s appearing in assist of the Palestinian armed group Hamas and won’t cease till there’s a ceasefire in Gaza. Each teams are backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK and different nations.

The Pentagon mentioned it was sending “a small quantity” of extra US troops to the Center East amid the rising disaster.

“In mild of elevated pressure within the Center East and out of an abundance of warning, we’re sending a small variety of extra US navy personnel ahead to enhance our forces which are already within the area,” mentioned Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Pat Ryder in a briefing with reporters.

He wouldn’t reply any follow-up questions on the specifics.

Lebanese media reported that Israeli warplanes carried out the primary wave of strikes throughout the nation at round 06:30 (03:30 GMT) on Monday.

Dozens of areas had been focused within the southern districts of Sidon, Marjayoun, Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, Tyre, Jezzine and Zahrani, in addition to in a number of jap districts within the Bekaa Valley, in keeping with the state-run Nationwide Information Company (NNA).

Later, the NNA mentioned the Israeli strikes intensified throughout the south and the Bekaa Valley, inflicting casualties and widespread injury.

Lebanon’s Well being Ministry mentioned on Monday night that 356 individuals had been killed within the strikes and one other 1,246 injured.

It didn’t report how lots of the casualties had been civilians or combatants however did say that 24 youngsters and 42 ladies had been among the many lifeless.

Well being Minister Firass Abiad added that 1000’s of households had additionally been displaced by the strikes.

There have been giant site visitors jams on roads out of the southern cities of Tyre and Sidon as civilians fled in response to the Israeli bombardment in addition to recorded warnings from the Israeli navy telling them to keep away from buildings and areas close to Hezbollah positions and weaponry.

One man in Beirut mentioned he had taken his son out of college after receiving such a warning.

“They’re calling everybody and threatening individuals by cellphone. So we’re right here to take my boy from college. The scenario shouldn’t be reassuring,” Issa advised Reuters information company

Info Minister Ziad Makary mentioned his ministry had been advised to evacuate its constructing in Beirut, however he insisted that it might not adjust to what he known as “a psychological struggle”.

Inside Minister Bassam Mawlawi mentioned faculties can be opened within the south and east, Beirut and the northern metropolis of Tripoli as shelters for the displaced.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati advised a cupboard assembly: “The continued Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a struggle of extermination in each sense of the phrase.”

“We’re working as a authorities to cease this new Israeli struggle and to keep away from descending into the unknown,” he added.

Reuters Cars are stuck in a traffic jam on a road from Lebanon's southern city of Sidon, amid intense Israeli air strikes (23 September 2024)Reuters

There was heavy site visitors on roads heading north from Lebanon’s southern coastal metropolis of Sidon

The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) mentioned in a press release on Monday afternoon that its plane had carried out strikes on roughly 800 Hezbollah “terror targets” in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Earlier, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari advised a briefing that movies from southern Lebanon confirmed “Hezbollah’s weapons exploding inside houses”.

“Each home that we strike incorporates weapons – rockets, missiles, UAVs which are meant to kill Israeli civilians,” he claimed.

He additionally warned civilians that they need to transfer instantly away from Hezbollah weapons and rocket shops “on your security and safety”.

Earlier, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned in a video that Israeli forces had been “deepening our assaults in Lebanon”. “The actions will proceed till we obtain our purpose to return the northern residents safely to their houses,” he added.

A senior Israeli navy official in the meantime insisted that the IDF was “presently specializing in Israel’s aerial marketing campaign solely” after being requested by reporters if a floor invasion of southern Lebanon was imminent.

The official mentioned Israel had three goals – to degrade Hezbollah’s capability to fireplace rockets and missiles over the Lebanon-Israel border, to push its fighters again from the frontier, and to destroy the infrastructure constructed by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Drive which might be used to assault Israeli communities.

Reuters An Israeli policeman walks on a roof of a house in northern Israel that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah (23 September 2024)Reuters

The roof of a home in northern Israel was destroyed by a rocket fired from Lebanon

Hezbollah didn’t touch upon the Israeli claims that it had hidden weapons in homes, however the group mentioned in a press release that it had responded to the “Israeli enemy’s assaults” by firing rockets at three Israeli navy bases in northern Israel, in addition to a weapons manufacturing facility within the coastal Zvulun space north of the port metropolis of Haifa.

The IDF mentioned at the least 125 projectiles crossed from Lebanon, and that an unspecified quantity had landed within the Decrease Galilee and Higher Galilee areas, in addition to the Carmel, HaAmakim, and Hamifratz areas, close to the coast, and within the occupied Golan Heights.

One home was badly broken by a rocket in Givat Avni, within the Decrease Galilee.

Resident David Yitzhak advised the BBC that he, his spouse and six-year-old daughter had been unhurt as a result of that they had managed to get behind the strong door of the home’s protected room seconds earlier, when a warning siren sounded.

“It’s a metre from life to dying,” he mentioned.

Israel’s ambulance service mentioned it handled a 59-year-old man with shrapnel wounds to his decrease limbs within the Decrease Galilee, and that one other man was injured as he rushed to shelter.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched greater than 150 rockets and drones throughout the border, whereas Israeli jets struck tons of of targets throughout southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has remained defiant regardless of struggling a sequence of serious setbacks final week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 39 individuals had been killed and 1000’s had been wounded after 1000’s of pagers and walkie-talkies utilized by Hezbollah exploded. And on Friday, Hezbollah mentioned at the least 16 members, together with high commanders of its elite Radwan Drive, had been amongst 45 individuals killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Beirut.

Talking at a funeral on Sunday, Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem mentioned the group wouldn’t be deterred.

“We’ve entered a brand new section,” he mentioned, “the title of which is the open-ended battle of reckoning.”

Leave a Comment