Israeli jets pounded Hizbullah targets in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 492 people and injuring more than 1,645. At least 58 women and 35 children were among the dead, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Iran-backed Hizbullah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said fighter jets attacked more than 1,300 Hizbullah targets including missiles, launchers, drones and buildings where it said the Iranian-backed group had concealed rockets.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the situation is almost a “full-fledged war”.
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“If this is not a war situation, I don’t know what you would call it,” he said, citing the increasing number of civilian casualties and the intensity of military strikes.
Borrell said efforts to reduce tensions were ongoing, but Europe’s worst fears about a spillover were becoming a reality.
The IDF has said it launched a fresh wave of strikes on Lebanon overnight, targeting positions from which rockets were fired towards Israel. In an update online, IDF officials said that “warplanes targeted dozens of sites” in several areas in southern Lebanon.
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Earlier, the IDF made 80,000 calls to residents of Shia areas in southern Lebanon urging them to leave their homes in areas where it said Hizbullah stores weapons. In the afternoon similar messages were sent to residents of the Bekaa valley, much further north, where Israel believes most of Hizbullah’s arsenal of long-range rockets are stored.
Huge traffic jams developed on the coastal road between Tyre and Beirut as tens of thousands of residents fled southern Lebanon.
On social media, Lebanese people shared appeals for, or offers of, cheap or free accommodation, with online forms set up to connect people with those willing to host them.
Relatives and friends sent advice over WhatsApp on what to stockpile – rice, gas, bulgar wheat, water – while neighbours had similar conversations in the streets. Petrol stations saw queues of cars, their drivers filling tanks with fuel.
Lebanese schools will be closed on Tuesday as the country, already close to economic collapse with state-run institutions barely functioning and widespread power cuts, faces an internal refugee crisis.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu directed a statement at Lebanese citizens, saying: “For too long, Hizbullah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your livingrooms and missiles in your garage. I urge you – take this warning seriously. Please, get out of harm’s way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”
An Israeli strike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood on Monday night targeted senior Hizbullah commander Ali Karaki, the head of the southern front, and considered number three in the group’s hierarchy. He was reportedly wounded.
Hizbullah fired more than 200 rockets and drones towards Israel, including at the country’s third-largest city, Haifa. Some projectiles also landed in the northern West Bank. No one was killed in the attacks but residents of northern Israel were told to stay close to bomb shelters at all times.
Israel’s government on Monday night declared a “special state of affairs” throughout the country, expanding the IDF’s powers to issue instructions to the public, such as a ban on gatherings and limiting studies.
An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations that are aimed at curbing Hizbullah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel. Some estimates said half of Hizbullah’s vast rocket arsenal may have been destroyed.
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Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying “traps” to lead his country into a wider conflict.
Washington is sending additional troops to the Middle East amid rising tensions. US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that the US supports Israel’s right to defend itself but stressed “the importance of finding a path to a diplomatic solution”. – Additional reporting: Reuters
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