Widespread Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon killed at least 492 people Monday and injured over 1,645 more, Beirut said, as Israel cautioned that strikes against the group would expand and Lebanese civilians were warned to flee areas where the Iran-backed terror group was thought to be hiding weapons.
The IDF said the air force was targeting homes where “rockets, drones and missiles” were emplaced by Hezbollah, and repeatedly urged civilians in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley to flee from homes where such weapons were stored. It said many of the dead were Hezbollah members.
Israelis also took shelter as Hezbollah bombarded Israel with over 200 rockets on Monday alone, setting off sirens in northern Israel, near the bay metropolis of Haifa and as far south as some West Bank settlements near Tel Aviv, causing some damage but no major casualties. The barrages, which marked some of the heaviest since fighting broke out on October 8 last year, served to up the ante after the terror group bombarded northern communities with at least 150 rockets a day earlier.
In Lebanon, videos shared on social media appeared to show masses fleeing major cities, and authorities began opening schools to shelter thousands of newly displaced.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck some 1,600 targets across Lebanon on Monday, including many homes it said housed weapons directly threatening the country, in the deadliest barrages of airstrikes since the 2006 war against Hezbollah, ratcheting up fears of a fresh outbreak of all-out conflict on the restive border.
Speaking from an underground command room at military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was changing the balance of power with Hezbollah, signaling Israel would no longer play defense after months of cross-border violence.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel since last October by relentless Hezbollah rocket fire, and Israel’s cabinet last week designated the secure return of those residents to their homes as an official aim of the current conflict.
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