Israel launches intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon, kill over 450 as conflict with Hezbollah ratchets up

Marjayoun: Within the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel on Monday launched intense air strike on Lebanon killing over 450 people including more than 60 women folk and teens. The Israeli militia warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate earlier than a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the most toll road out of the southern port city of Sidon turned into jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the largest exodus since 2006.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 356 people, including 24 teens and forty two women folk, and wounded 1,246 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on conversation devices last week.

The death toll a ways surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at the very least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.

In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.” “Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, that you just may come back safely to your homes.”

The Israeli militia said Monday evening it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It failed to supply small print.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported the Beir al-Abed neighborhood in southern Beirut turned into hit with three missiles. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded. The realm turned into cordoned off and journalists were not allowed access.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut the sooner strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The govt. ordered schools and universities to close across most of the u . s . a . and started preparing shelters for parents displaced from the south.

The Israeli militia announced it hit some 800 targets, saying it turned into going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes struck residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a woodland as a ways away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than eighty miles (100 thirty kilometers) from the border north of Beirut.

The militia said it turned into expanding the airstrikes to consist of areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group turned into founded in 1982 with the assist of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Israeli militia spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to instantly evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley. The warnings left open the possibility some residents may are living in or near targeted structures without knowing they're in danger.

Israel’s militia chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel turned into preparing its “next phases” of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were “proactive,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past twenty years.

Halevi said more small print will be released in the near future, and that the goal turned into to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.

(With AP inputs)