Following repeated clashes since the conflict broke out in October 2023, Israel has warned Lebanese to evacuate areas it says are where armed groups store weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a brief statement to the Lebanese people.
"Israel's war is not against you, it is against Hezbollah. Hezbollah has used you as human shields for too long."
Families in southern Lebanon packed their belongings into cars and trucks, sometimes with multiple generations of the same family sharing a vehicle. Children were packed into vehicles on their parents’ laps and suitcases strapped to the roofs of vehicles in the face of bombardment.
Highways to the north were completely blocked. "I gathered important documents and we ran. There were airstrikes all around us, it was really scary," said Abed Afou, who was stuck in traffic and was slowly moving north with his family, including three sons aged six to 13, and several other relatives.
He said his family did not know where they would have to stay, but for now they just wanted to get to Beirut.
Some people evacuated on foot. Many carried small packages of belongings and walked north along the beach near the town of Tyre in Lebanon.
Nasser Yassin, the minister coordinating the crisis response, said 89 shelters in schools and other institutions had been opened, with the capacity to accommodate more than 26,000 Lebanese citizens fleeing “Israeli brutality”.
After nearly a year of fighting with Hamas in Gaza in the south, Israel is turning its attention to the northern battlefield, where Hezbollah regularly launches rockets into Israel in support of Hamas.
The Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah in southern, eastern and northern Lebanon.
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 492 people were killed, including 35 children, and 1,645 were injured. A Lebanese official said it was the highest single-day death toll from violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday marked a "significant escalation" in the nearly year-long conflict.
"Today, we destroyed tens of thousands of missiles and other precision weapons. The weapons that Hezbollah had prepared over the past 20 years since the end of the Second Lebanon War were destroyed by the IDF."
On Monday, Saudi Arabia expressed deep concern and urged restraint from all sides.
There will be more airstrikes.
Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed.
On Monday afternoon, Israel carried out an airstrike on the southern outskirts of Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki, head of the southern front. Hezbollah said the commander was safe and had been moved to a secure area.
However, the Hamas armed wing said its commander in Lebanon, Mahmoud al Nader, was killed in the air strike.
About 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel because of cross-border fighting. Gallant said the operation would continue until it was safe for people to return home. Hezbollah has pledged to fight until a ceasefire in Gaza is signed.
The Israeli military said it struck 1,300 Hezbollah military targets in Lebanon on Monday. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said there were multiple secondary explosions as weapons depots exploded.
He said Israeli forces hit multiple long-range cruise missiles, heavy missiles, short-range missiles and drones.
In response to this airstrike, Hezbollah launched a series of rockets targeting a military base in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said air raid sirens had been activated across northern Israel, including in the port city of Haifa and the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Lebanon is expected to carry out more airstrikes.
Mr Hagari said Hezbollah had stockpiled weapons “in Lebanese villages and homes, and intended to use them to attack civilians in Israel, and to put Lebanese civilians in danger”.
Hezbollah has not commented on the claims that it stores weapons in civilian homes, Reuters could not confirm these claims, and Hezbollah has previously said it does not place military infrastructure near civilians.
Pressure on Hezbollah
The airstrike has added to the pressure on Hezbollah, which suffered heavy casualties last week after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members were blown up.
The attack is widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, and the government has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
In New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian asserted that Israel wants to drag the Middle East into all-out war by provoking Iran into the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Speaking to reporters in New York after arriving to attend the UN General Assembly, he said "it is Israel that wants a full-scale conflict", and warned that the consequences of instability in the region would be irreversible.
Recent hostilities have led to concerns that the United States, Israel's ally, and Iran could be drawn into a full-scale war.
Nguyen Quang Minh (According to Reuters)
Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/lebanon-thong-tin-492-nguoi-thiet-mang-do-israel-khong-kich-204240924092443363.htm
Comment (0)