The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on Lebanon on Monday, reportedly killing over 550 people, including 50 children and 94 women. The strikes, which have been described as the deadliest since the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, come amid the Jewish state’s expanding campaign against the Lebanese militant group.
Lebanese authorities have reported that over 1,800 people have been injured. The country’s health minister, Firass Abiad, has claimed that the strikes have hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances.
The government has ordered schools and universities across the country to begin preparing shelters as thousands of people flee from the southern regions of Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has claimed to have struck over 1,500 targets, describing them as Hezbollah weapons sites.
25 September 2024
At least 51 people were killed and more than 220 injured in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, Al Manar has reported, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israel's military is “preparing” a ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Times of Israel has reported, citing IDF Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi. The lieutenant general did not reveal when the operation was scheduled to commence, according to the report. The nation’s top commander also vowed a “very strong response” to a missile attack which Hezbollah launched against Tel Aviv earlier on Wednesday.
More than 90,500 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid the recent developments, the UN migration agency has said. Almost 40,000 of them have been placed in some 283 shelters, the International Organization for Migration reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have struck 60 different locations, mostly in Southern Lebanon, the Israeli military has said. According to the IDF, the targets were linked to Hezbollah’s intelligence network. West Jerusalem hasn’t commented on if there were any casualties linked to the airstrikes. Lebanon has not commented on the development either.
The Israel Defense Forces have announced the mobilization of two additional brigades to be deployed to the “northern sector.” Calling more reservists to arms will “allow the continuation of the fighting effort” against Hezbollah, potentially creating conditions for the return of civilians evacuated from the north of Israel, the military has said.
Israeli targeted assassinations of Hezbollah leaders will not bring the organization to its knees, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address to military veterans and activists on Wednesday. The strength of the militant movement backed by Tehran is “much stronger” than Israel imagines, he claimed.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have pinned the blame for the escalation in Lebanon on Israel, accusing the Jewish state of pushing the Middle East towards an all-out war.
In a joint statement signed by the senior diplomats on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, they urged the UN Security Council to act in accordance with its mandate to maintain international peace, warning that the region would otherwise face “serious consequences.”
Pope Francis has said he is “pained” by the escalation of violence in Lebanon and the high toll it is taking.
”I hope that the international community makes every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable,” he said, as quoted by the Vatican press service.
Protests against Israeli military action in Lebanon and Gaza have taken place in major US cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC.
Hezbollah has confirmed that it fired a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv, saying the target was the Mossad headquarters. The statement said Israeli intelligence agency was responsible for targeted assassinations of Hezbollah leaders and the two deadly waves of explosions of portable devices in Lebanon last week.
Israel’s “air aggression continued overnight,” according to Lebanese media, with fresh rounds of strikes by “enemy warplanes and drones” reported on Wednesday morning. “Since 5:00am (2:00am GMT), enemy warplanes have launched strikes” in southern Lebanon, the official National News Agency stated, reporting an unspecified number of casualties.
The IDF claims to have successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Lebanon at Tel Aviv. The incident would mark the first time Hezbollah has targeted the city since last year’s Hamas attack, according to the Times of Israel. However, the Home Front Command says there is no change in security instructions for residents of central Israel.
Multiple rocket sirens have been activated in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in central Israel, with the IDF urging residents to seek shelter.
Israel’s envoy to the UN, Danny Danon, has said that West Jerusalem is “not eager to start any ground invasion anywhere,” but will do “whatever necessary” to protect its citizens from Hezbollah rockets.
“We prefer a diplomatic solution. But if it’s not working, we are using other methods to show the other side that we mean business,” he said, emphasizing that Israel will do “whatever necessary to bring the residents back to the north.”
Lebanon has expressed disappointment with US President Joe Biden’s remarks at the UN General Assembly.
“It was not strong, it is not promising, and it would not solve the Lebanese problem,” Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said about Biden’s speech. “We are still hoping. The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon.”
The number of displaced Lebanese civilians has soared and is “now probably approaching half a million,” according to Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. Before Israel launched its military campaign against Hezbollah, Lebanon had an estimated 110,000 displaced persons.
At least 569 people have been killed and some 1,835 others wounded in Israeli strikes across Lebanon since Monday, with the death toll steadily rising, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry data cited by Al Jazeera.
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian to use his influence to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon during their meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly.
According to a statement from the Elysee Palace, Macron “highlighted the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and use its influence with destabilizing actors,” in an indirect reference to Hezbollah.
24 September 2024
Hezbollah has confirmed the death of a senior commander, announcing that Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem.”
The IDF previously claimed to have targeted Qubaisi in a strike on a residential area of Beirut, accusing him of being responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel. The group did not reveal the location or details of his death, but according to the Lebanese health officials, an Israeli strike on Beirut earlier in the day killed six people and wounded at least 15 others.
The president of the European council, Charles Michel, has warned Israel against inflicting “collective punishment” on civilians in Lebanon.
“Israel has the right to defend itself. Israel has the right to exist, and we support the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself. But defending itself, it doesn’t mean collective punishment. It needs a principle of proportionality,” Michel said on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has advised thousands of Britons who are currently in Lebanon to “leave immediately” as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate.
Defence Secretary John Healey has also urged all Britons to leave “now,” describing the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and warning that events could rapidly deteriorate.
Approximately 700 UK troops are being deployed to Cyprus, where they will be stationed at RAF Akrotiri, a major military base, in preparation for a potential emergency evacuation operation. Two British warships, HMS Duncan and RFA Mounts Bay, are already in the region and Royal Air Force planes and helicopters are on standby.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has accused the UN of neglecting its “fundamental obligation” in response to comments from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“The reality is that Hezbollah has taken Lebanon hostage, and the UN is neither acknowledging their actions, nor fulfilling its fundamental obligation - preventing Hezbollah attacks and demanding the implementation of resolution 1701,” Gallant wrote on X.
Guterres previously said that the “people of Lebanon – the people of Israel – and the people of the world – cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
The UN Security Council is set to meet on Wednesday to assess the ongoing escalation in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, Slovenia, which is currently holding the rotating presidency at the body, has announced.
Israel has “additional blows already prepared” for Hezbollah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday evening, addressing two units after an exercise simulating a ground offensive in Lebanon.
“We have more blows ready, we know what to do,” Gallant told the troops of the 7th Armored Brigade and 202nd Paratroopers Battalion, who have previously fought in Gaza against Hamas.
Hezbollah missiles have started several forest fires near Safad, in northern Israel, according to local media.
“This has to stop,” King Abdullah of Jordan has told the UN General Assembly, referring to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, adding that “No country in the region benefits from escalation.”
The Jordanian monarch focused mainly on the conflict in Gaza, urging the UN to set up “a protection mechanism” for the Palestinians. While the world has rightly condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians last October, he said, “the unprecedented scale of terror unleashed on Gaza since that day is beyond any justification.”
“The Israeli government’s assault has resulted in one of the fastest death rates in recent conflicts, one of the fastest rates of starvation caused by war, the largest cohort of child amputees and unprecedented levels of destruction. This Israeli government has killed more children, more journalists, more aid workers and more medical personnel than any other war in recent memory,” King Abdullah said.
Hezbollah has responded to Israeli airstrikes by launching more missiles towards Haifa, the Golan Heights and Galilee, both Israeli and Lebanese sources have confirmed. According to Al Jazeera, the Shia militia has used Fadi-3 long-range missiles for the first time. Meanwhile, the IDF said it has registered more than 270 incoming projectiles so far on Tuesday, adding that “several impacts” caused property damage and wounded at least two people.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again compared Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, while addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
“Just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity seventy years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by an alliance of humanity,” Erdogan said.
He also accused Netanyahu of trying to “drag the entire region into war for the sake of his political fortunes.”
The Israeli military said on Tuesday evening that it has struck more than 1,500 Hezbollah targets over the past two days, in 200 different locations in Lebanon. According to the IDF, the targets included 400 medium-range rocket launchers, 70 weapon depots, and 80 drones and cruise missiles.
Over 250 fighter jets took part in the strikes, firing some 2,000 munitions.
The Israeli military said the strikes will continue in order to destroy Hezbollah’s capabilities and “change the security reality in the north.”
The Israeli Air Force has announced a fourth wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The “widespread” bombing campaign previously targeted the Beqaa Valley and the south of the country, the IDF said.
The Israeli military has claimed it killed the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday. According to the IDF, Ibrahim Qubaisi and several other senior Hezbollah officers were targeted in the airstrike on the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeskhian condemned the “inaction of the UN against the crimes” of Israel and said he has voiced his concerns to the UN secretary-general.
“The silence of the world, especially the Western countries, before the deaths of 41,000 innocent people in Gaza is incomprehensible,” Pezeskhian said. “The Islamic world will not allow them to turn Lebanon into another Gaza.”
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi has confirmed that two employees of the agency were killed in Lebanon on Monday.
“Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives,” Grandi wrote on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the people of Lebanon to rise up against Hezbollah, insisting that “our war is not with you.”
“[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah is leading you to the brink of the abyss,” Netanyahu said after visiting an IDF intelligence base. “He who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his garage will not have a home.”
“Free yourself from Nasrallah’s grip, for your own good,” the Israeli leader said.
The Israeli Defense Forces has said it has dropped some 2,000 munitions on 1,500 targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday in Ghobeiry in the southern suburbs of Beirut has left at least six people dead and 15 injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry has told media. The number of casualties is expected to rise as emergency services continue their work at the scene, it added.
A barcode printed on leaflets dropped by the Israeli military onto Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley poses a threat to phone data if scanned, Hezbollah’s media office has claimed, as cited by Reuters.
On Monday, an Israeli military spokesman said the IDF was planning attacks in the area, claiming that Hezbollah has significant caches of weapons stored there. Speaking in a televised address, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari called on civilians to evacuate.
A video posted online allegedly shows the aftermath of an IDF airstrike on Beirut. The Israeli Defense Ministry previously reported conducting an attack on the Lebanese capital, saying it would provide details later.
Videos circulating online purport to show a mass exodus of people from southern Lebanon since the escalation of Israeli strikes on Monday.
Israel is seeking to “divert global attention” from its military action against Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority has said in a statement. It did not mention the escalating violence in Lebanon directly or explain how exactly it believes West Jerusalem wants to achieve its goal.
Israel is waging a “war of extermination and displacement” against the Palestinian people and is committing “mass crimes in the Gaza Strip,” the West Bank-based government alleged. It also claimed credit for several recent moves at the UN and other international organizations, which further the cause of Palestinian statehood.
The message was released on Tuesday ahead of a speech by PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly in New York.
IDF fighter jets have staged another wave of strikes in Lebanon, their second of the day, the Israeli military has reported. The strikes were close to the border and deep inside Lebanon, according to a statement which was accompanied by footage of what Israel claimed to be the bombing of Hezbollah military infrastructure.
The death toll from recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon has risen to 558, including 50 children and 94 women, the country’s Health Minister Firass Abiad reported during a media briefing in Beirut on Tuesday morning. At least 1,835 people were injured since Monday in Israeli attacks near the countries' border and in the capital, he said, citing data collected by his ministry.
Most of the victims were civilians and some were emergency-service first responders, Abiad added. He also claimed this is evidence that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.
UN High Commissioner Volker Turk is “extremely alarmed by the sharp escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah,” and has urged anyone who has leverage on the parties to use it to prevent further violence.
He said at a meeting that, under international law, all participants in an armed conflict “must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives.” All military action must also be proportionate, Turk added.
The high number of civilian casualties reported in Lebanon indicates that those rules are being violated, he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of “enabling” Israeli actions, which he called “crimes” that are “crystal clear for the world to witness.”
“Iran will NOT remain indifferent. We stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
China is “deeply shocked” by the escalating number of casualties in the Israel-Lebanon clashes, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian has told journalists at a regular briefing. Beijing calls on the international community to defuse the situation, he added.
Dozens of flights to and from Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport have been canceled, according to its website and local residents, who relayed that the hub was mostly empty on Tuesday morning.
Qatar Airways, EgyptAir, Tarom and Lufthansa are among the airlines that have suspended flights to Lebanon.
The Middle East is facing “full destabilization” due to the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
”It is hard to discuss any prospect of a settlement now,” the official added, referring to the broader situation, including the Israel-Palestine conflict. “As you know, the peace process has been de facto monopolized by a single nation, and unfortunately there have been no particular successes.”
Moscow previously accused Washington of taking over the Middle East peace process and bringing it to a dead end due through its pro-Israel bias.
A video circulating online purportedly shows a rocket hitting a highway in northern Israel, reportedly near the town of Tamra.
Israel’s goal in attacking Lebanon is to cut “Hezbollah from the war with Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Monday, according to a source quoted by CNN. The same source, reportedly an Israeli official, claimed that West Jerusalem intends to escalate military action every day, until the Lebanese militant movement caves in to the pressure.
Five projectiles targeted the HaAmakim area in northern Israel on Tuesday morning from across the border, the IDF has reported. Another 50 have been fired at the Upper Galilee area, causing some damage.
Several buildings have also been set on fire in the city of Kiryat Shmona, according to videos circulating online.
Israeli police have suspended officers involved in a violent clash with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which occurred in the city of Beit Shemesh on Monday. The demonstrators were picketing an event promoting the integration of their isolationist community into Israeli society.
Footage of the incident circulating online shows officers kicking several demonstrators and beating them with batons. Police Commissioner Daniel Levy later stated that such behavior went against the values of the force, and has launched a disciplinary probe.
According to Israeli media, prior to the altercation the protesters broke into the building and harassed people inside, shouting slogans such as “Death to the IDF.”
The Haredi sect, which adheres to a strict interpretation of Judaism, has enjoyed some privileges under Israeli law, until recently including an exemption from mandatory military service. In late July, the IDF began sending draft letters to them, after the Supreme Court struck down the waiver. Some ultra-Orthodox leaders have publicly called for the summons to be ignored.
The IDF has released what it claims is footage of strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military reported launching dozens of attacks overnight and also using tanks and artillery.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter has called the Israeli attack on Lebanon “horrendous” and warned that it “won’t lead to any solution for the region.” In a post on X, the official urged diplomacy and a ceasefire.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has posted an apparently AI-generated image showing Hassan Nasrallah sitting next to a missile in someone’s home.
”Nasrallah is deploying Hezbollah’s missiles in the homes of Lebanese citizens, using the civilian population as human shields,” Katz claimed, urging Lebanese civilians in such situations to “leave their home immediately for their own safety.”
The foreign ministers of G7 nations have jointly called for a “stop to the current destructive cycle,” warning that “no country stands to gain from further escalation in the Middle East.”
“Actions and counter-reactions risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence and dragging the entire Middle East into a broader regional conflict with unimaginable consequences,” the joint statement said, according to AFP.
Two more rockets have been fired from Lebanon towards Nahariya, Israel’s northernmost coastal city, the Times of Israel reports, citing the IDF. Both projectiles reportedly fell into the sea, causing no damage or injuries.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed support for “safeguarding the sovereignty, security, and national dignity” of Lebanon, during a meeting with Beirut's foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, in New York.
“We pay close attention to the development of the regional situation, especially the recent explosion of communication equipment in Lebanon, and firmly oppose indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” Wang said, according to a statement from China's Foreign Ministry.
“No matter how the situation changes, we will insist on standing on the side of justice and our Arab brothers, including Lebanon,” he added. The top diplomat also reiterated Beijing’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops to implement a two-state solution.
Hezbollah launched several rocket attacks against Israeli military installations overnight, according to a statement from the Lebanese armed group.
“The Islamic Resistance attacked the Megiddo military airfield west of the city of Afula with Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 missiles on Tuesday,” the statement said. The group also claimed to have targeted the Ramat David Airbase in Haifa, as well as another military base and an “explosives factory.”
The IDF has claimed that it detected around two dozen rockets launched in several volleys from Lebanese territory toward Israel in several volleys. Some were reportedly “intercepted by air defenses,” while others fell in “open areas.” The Israeli Air Force has claimed that it conducted retaliatory strikes against the sources of the attack.
Lebanese journalist Fadi Boudiya was injured in an Israeli airstrike in the Beqaa Valley on Monday. A video circulating online shows him preparing for an interview when the blast occurred behind him.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called the escalation between Israel and Lebanon “almost a full-fledged war,” adding that Europe’s worst fears were becoming a reality.
“If this is not a war situation, I don’t know what you would call it,” Borrell told reporters, as cited by Reuters. “This situation is extremely dangerous and worrying. I can say that we are almost in a full-fledged war.”
23 September 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a planned flight to the United States amid the escalation of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, according to his office. The Israeli leader is now expected to arrive in New York on Thursday morning, and will deliver his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
The Israeli military has stated that it struck “approximately 1,600 Hezbollah terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley with multiple strikes over a 24-hour period.
”Over the past few hours, directed by IDF intelligence, the IAF struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets, including launchers, command posts, and terrorist infrastructure in numerous areas of southern Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement, sharing a purported video of some of the strikes.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has called for an emergency United Nations Security Council session to discuss Israel’s major cross-border attack on Lebanon.
“I have requested that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be held on Lebanon this week,” Barrot told the UN General Assembly on Monday, urging all sides to “avoid a regional conflagration that would be devastating for everyone.”
Catherine Russell, the executive director of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), has expressed “alarm” over the “ongoing surge of attacks in Lebanon and Israel,” urging all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.
According to the latest tally from Lebanon's health ministry, Israeli strikes have killed at least 492 people – including 35 children and 58 women – and wounded 1,645 individuals.
”Countless more children are in danger, with thousands of families displaced from their homes and ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure,” Russell said in a statement.
”Alarming levels of psychological distress have been reported among children in both countries, stemming not only from their sudden displacement but also from the barrage of shelling and air raids that have become their daily reality for nearly a year,” she added.
The current escalation between Israel and Lebanon may likely erupt into a full-scale war, according to Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov.
“The probability is very high, since the interest of some participants in this conflict in a real reduction in escalation is not visible,” Viktorov told RIA Novosti.
“This is confirmed by massive rocket attacks from both sides, resulting in casualties and infrastructural destruction. A new element has been added to the conflict: the terrorist use of information and communication technologies last week. This means additional threats and consequences for the current situation,” Viktorov added, noting that the current level of hostility in the region is unprecedented in the past several decades.
Israel has named its military operation against Hezbollah “Northern Arrows,” the IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, announced on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Health Ministry updated the death toll from IDF strikes to 492, with at least 1,645 wounded in the bombings of Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Egypt has called on “international powers and the UN Security Council to intervene immediately” to stop the “dangerous Israeli escalation in Lebanon” that “threatens to drag the region into a comprehensive regional war,” according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry in Cairo.
Egypt has expressed solidarity with Lebanon and denounced “any violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territory,” while continuing to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, the ministry added.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon “mark a new phase in its efforts to drag the entire region into chaos,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Monday evening.
“The countries that unconditionally support Israel are helping [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu shed blood for his political interests,” the ministry said in a statement, calling on the UN Security Council and “all institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security” to act without delay and stop the hostilities.
The NGO Save the Children has condemned the Israeli bombing of Lebanon as “the deadliest day since last October,” noting that around 1.5 million children will face school closures on Tuesday.
“We’re seeing strikes in dozens of towns, families desperately trying to flee with whatever they can carry, children crying, terrified by the sound of drones and fighter jets,” according to Jennifer Moorehead, the NGO’s director in Lebanon.
At least 24 children were killed in Israeli air attacks on Monday, according to Lebanese authorities.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has called for an urgent meeting of Arab leaders in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, to “review the repercussions of the Zionist aggression on our peaceful people in Lebanon” and work to stop the “criminal behavior,” according to a statement released to the press.
Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki is “well” and in a safe place, the group said on Monday evening. Israeli media earlier reported that Karaki was the target of a series of IDF airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Lebanese capital Beirut earlier in the day.
Spain has condemned the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, calling for a ceasefire and respect for UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
“War must be avoided at all costs. All parties must respect civilian lives and the basic principles of international humanitarian law,” the Foreign Ministry in Madrid said on Monday in a statement, according to an unofficial translation. “The spiral of violence must stop.”
At least 356 Lebanese have been killed and 1,246 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Monday, the health ministry in Beirut announced later in the day. Among the casualties were 42 women and 24 children, the authorities said.
On Monday evening, the IDF said it had struck “more than 1,300” Hezbollah targets in Lebanon with over 1,400 munitions. The Israeli military claimed it was targeting storage facilities and deployment points of rockets, missiles, launchers, and drones that “posed a threat and were intended to have been used against Israel.”
Hezbollah has fired around 200 rockets at northern Israel since Monday morning, according to the IDF.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “alarmed” by the escalating conflict in Lebanon and has expressed “great concern” for the safety of civilians in that country and in Israel, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“The secretary-general notes the ongoing efforts by the UN special coordinator for Lebanon and the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon to reduce tensions, and he reiterates the urgent need for de-escalation – that all efforts should be devoted to a diplomatic solution,” Dujarric added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of acting “not as a state but as a terrorist organization,” saying that it has shown it doesn’t care about civilian lives when it remotely blew up hundreds of communications devices across Lebanon last week.
“Israel’s plan is to spread the war to the entire region,” Erdogan said on Monday, after Israel’s military announced earlier in the day it had conducted “extensive” airstrikes on 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
There have been casualties from an Israeli “precision strike” on the Dahiyeh neighborhood of southern Beirut, the Lebanese National News Agency has said. The attack took place in Bir al-Abed but the exact number of people injured or killed remains unknown.
In a video message addressed to the people of Lebanon, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu argued that “Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Hezbollah.”
Netanyahu claimed that Hezbollah has used Lebanese civilians as “human shields” and that Israel needs to destroy the group’s weapons.
”Starting this morning, the IDF has warned you to get out of harm’s way,” Netanyahu said. “Please, get out of harm’s way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”
The Lebanese government has dismissed the Israeli calls as “psychological warfare.”
Israel is “crushing what was built by Hezbollah for 20 years,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, while visiting the IDF Operations Directorate.
“[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah remains alone at the top, entire units of the Radwan Force were taken out of service, and tens of thousands of rockets were destroyed,” Gallant added, according to the IDF.
The US will send additional troops to the Middle East, the Pentagon announced on Monday, citing the “spike in violence” between Israel and Hezbollah.
Washington has an estimated 40,000 troops in the region. Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder would not say how many additional forces would be deployed, or what their mission might be.
The US State Department has warned Americans to leave Lebanon due to the rising risk of a regional war.
Israeli jets have carried out an airstrike in Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki, the Times of Israel has reported, citing security sources. Karaki is allegedly the head of Hezbollah’s southern command, responsible for military activity in south Lebanon, and a member of the Jihad Council.
Hezbollah has issued a statement claiming to have targeted two Israeli bases in retaliation for the Jewish state’s attacks on southern Lebanon. The group said it has launched dozens of rockets at the two bases.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the army is expanding strikes against Hezbollah positions “all over Lebanon.”
The Israeli military has also announced on X that it is currently targeting the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has claimed that Israel’s strikes on Lebanon are an attempt to create a “wider conflict” and has warned that a war in the Middle East would not benefit anyone.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry has also described the strikes as “insane” and has warned of “dangerous consequences” for West Jerusalem’s “new adventure.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has expressed “grave concern” over Israeli strikes and their impact on civilians in southern Lebanon. The organization has called for a “diplomatic solution” and urged Israel and the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah to prioritize civilian lives.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad has urged hospitals to stop taking regular light cases to make space for those wounded in the Israeli airstrikes in the south.
He has also announced plans to turn first-aid centers into places that can receive the injured. The displaced who have cancer, kidney failure and chronic diseases are planned to be transferred to other medical centers.