 "At least 356 killed, over 5,000 wounded in Lebanon as Israel hits 1,300 Hezbollah targets")
Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 356 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah, according to reports.
“Israeli enemy strikes on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Baalbek” in the east, “killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, the health ministry said in a statement.
Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting. More than 5,000 other people were wounded in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut that the strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.
The Israeli military said late Monday that air strikes in Lebanon hit more than 1,300 targets of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in the previous 24 hours.
The strikes hit “over 1,300 targets”, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing.
An earlier statement from the Israeli army specified that the targets included “buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure where rockets, missiles, launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles posed a threat”.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn a separate statement Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that “on this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition”.
Gallant called Monday “a significant peak” in the operation. “This is the most difficult week for Hezbollah since its establishment –- the results speak for themselves,” he said.
“Entire units were taken out of battle as a result of the activities conducted at the beginning of the week in which numerous terrorists were injured,” he said.
Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force suffered “a fatal blow” with the loss of “top commanders, including regional and brigade commanders”, he said, referring to a strike Friday that killed, among others, the elite force’s head Ibrahim Aqil.
The Israeli military announced that it hit some 1300 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.
Earlier in the day, Israel said it conducted a round of pre-emptive strikes against Hezbollah across southern Lebanon after learning that “Hezbollah was preparing to fire towards Israeli territory”, said Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson Real Admiral Daniel Hagari.
The Chief of the General Staff approves strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon from the IDF Headquarters Underground Operations Center. So far, more than 300 Hezbollah targets have been struck today. pic.twitter.com/hbNKWJ8QAs
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 23, 2024
In the latest phase of increased fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, this was the sixth round of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon. The phase, which involves targeting of handheld communication devices of Hezbollah, has led to fears that the conflict may spiral into a full-scale war. Even though Hezbollah has clashed with Israel on a nearly-daily basis since October 7 attack and several thousands have been displaced from the fighting, they have avoided an all-out war.
‘Move out of harm’s way for their own safety’
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), IDF Spokesperson Hagari told Lebanese civilians to “move out of harm’s way for their own safety” and vacate Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Hagari said that Hezbollah uses civilian infrastructure to store missiles and use civilians’ houses as launch sites for its missiles and rockets — a known practice of anti-Israel terrorist groups, including that of Hamas, in the Middle East.
“There are dozens of Lebanese villages situated along approximately 80 kilometers of the border with Israel. For over 20 years, Hezbollah has deployed its arms inside homes and militarised civilian infrastructure. As a result, the Hezbollah terrorist organisation has turned southern Lebanon into a battlefield,” said Hagari.
IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari exposing Hezbollah’s way of firing missiles from civilian homes, and how the IDF plans on dismantling it: pic.twitter.com/smkfjv6VDh
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 23, 2024
Sharing illustration of how Hezbollah embeds weapons inside civilians’ houses in Lebanese villages, Hagari said that Hezbollah stores cruise missiles, rockets, launchers, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) inside civilian homes hidden behind the Lebanese population living in villages.
“We are monitoring these activities, locating the weapons, and destroying them with precise intelligence-based strikes,” said Hagari.
Ahead of the second wave of strikes today against Hezbollah targets, Hagari said that Lebanese villagers should “pay attention to the message and warning published by the IDF and heed them”.
“This is an advanced warning for your own safety and the safety of your family. We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purpose, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety,” said Hagari.
Referring to several thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s frequent rocket-fire in the country’s north along the Lebanese border, Hagari said the military is continuing in line with the goals of the war, which includes dismantling Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as repealing the “threat posed by Hezbollah and enable the residents from the north of Israel safely to return to their homes”.
Besides the English message shared by Hagari, the IDF also shared the message in Arabic. The Times of Israel quoted Hagari as saying that the warning was also “distributed in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon”.
Separately, the Lebanese state media reported that several people in Beirut and elsewhere in southern Lebanon received the evacuation warning as messages on their mobile phones.
Isarel strikes 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in 2 waves
In two waves of strikes on Monday, Israel said it struck 300 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the first wave of strikes began around 6:30 am local time and went farther in geographical scope than any other round of strikes so far in the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
All squadrons of the Israeli Air Force were part of the strikes, as per the newspaper.
Responding to the Israeli strikes, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attacks were aimed at the extermination of Lebanon.
“The continuing Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word and a destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns,” said Mikati, as per the Al-Arabiya.
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