Israeli firefighters battle a blaze on the website of an rocket strike, fired from southern Lebanon, in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel on September 24, 2024. – The Israeli navy mentioned greater than 50 projectiles had been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on the morning of September 24, because it pounded Hezbollah targets with new strikes. (Photograph by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Beirut, Lebanon – Israel introduced dozens of latest air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon Tuesday, a day after 492 individuals, together with 35 youngsters, had been killed within the deadliest bombardment since a devastating warfare in 2006.
Israeli bombardment
In Lebanon, Monday’s raids killed 492 individuals, together with 35 youngsters and 58 girls, and wounded 1,645, based on the well being ministry.
The United Nations mentioned tens of 1000’s of Lebanese had fled their properties since Monday, within the face of the intensifying Israeli bombardment.
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“Tens of 1000’s of individuals had been pressured from their properties yesterday and in a single day, and the numbers proceed to develop,” UN refugee company spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh mentioned, including that “the toll on civilians is unacceptable”.
Lebanese journalist Nazir Reda was driving to his hometown close to the Israeli border to select up his household and get them away from the violence.
“Everyone seems to be heading (to the capital Beirut) with their youngsters and their belongings — it’s the primary time we see such panic since 2006,” he mentioned.
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Cross-border exchanges
Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fireplace for practically a yr, since Palestinian militant group Hamas staged an unprecedented assault on Israel on October 7.
Hezbollah, which has been preventing Israel for many years, and different Iran-backed militants within the area have been drawn into the violence.
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Monday’s bombardment of Lebanon was by far the most important and deadliest, not simply prior to now yr, however for the reason that Israel-Hezbollah warfare in the summertime of 2006.
That warfare killed 1,200 individuals in Lebanon, principally civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them troopers, and devastated giant swathes of Hezbollah’s strongholds.
‘Operation Northern Arrows’
Israel has dubbed its raids on Hezbollah “Operation Northern Arrows” after saying earlier this month it was shifting the main focus of its firepower from Gaza to Lebanon.
Hezbollah backer Iran, which arms, trains and funds the group, condemned the raids, with its president, Masoud Pezeshkian, saying Tuesday that its ally “can’t stand alone” towards Israel.
“Hezbollah can’t stand alone towards a rustic that’s being defended and supported and equipped by Western nations, by European nations and america,” Pezeshkian mentioned in an interview with CNN.
“We should not permit Lebanon to develop into one other Gaza by the hands of Israel,” he added.
Different leaders have expressed alarm over the speedy escalation, with UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman saying he was “gravely alarmed” and the EU’s prime diplomat Josep Borrell warning “we’re nearly in a full-fledged warfare”.
The Pentagon mentioned it was sending a small variety of extra US navy personnel to the Center East after 1000’s had been deployed earlier alongside warships, fighter jets and air defence techniques.
A US official, talking on situation of anonymity, mentioned that Washington opposed an Israeli floor invasion concentrating on Hezbollah and had “concrete concepts” on learn how to de-escalate the disaster.
G7 international ministers mentioned in a joint assertion that “no nation stands to achieve” from escalating battle, warning of “unimaginable penalties” if a regional warfare broke out.
China’s prime diplomat Wang Yi expressed help for Lebanon and condemned what he described as “indiscriminate assaults towards civilians”.
‘Most troublesome week for Hezbollah’
Israeli armed forces chief Herzi Halevi mentioned Monday’s strikes hit fight infrastructure Hezbollah had been constructing for twenty years, whereas Defence Minister Yoav Gallant referred to as Monday “a big peak” within the operation.
“That is probably the most troublesome week for Hezbollah since its institution –- the outcomes communicate for themselves,” he mentioned.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Israel was appearing to vary the “safety steadiness” within the north, wile Hezbollah mentioned it was in a “new part” of confrontation with Israel.
Warfare in Gaza started with Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,205 individuals, principally civilians, based on an AFP tally primarily based on Israeli official figures that embrace hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are nonetheless held in Gaza, together with 33 the Israeli navy says are useless.
Israel’s retaliatory navy offensive has killed a minimum of 41,467 individuals in Gaza, most of them civilians, based on figures supplied by the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry. The UN has described the figures as dependable.
Because the begin of the Gaza warfare, clashes alongside the Lebanon-Israel border have pressured tens of 1000’s of individuals on either side to flee their properties.
Gadget blasts
The violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalated dramatically final week, when coordinated communications gadget blasts that the militants blamed on Israel killed 39 individuals and wounded nearly 3,000.
Then on Friday, an Israeli strike on southern Beirut, a bastion of Hezbollah, killed its elite Radwan Drive commander, Ibrahim Aqil.
An Israeli navy official, who can’t be recognized, mentioned the navy is searching for to “degrade threats” from Hezbollah, push them again from the border and destroy infrastructure.
“That is a particularly harmful state of affairs, however one which for me nonetheless leaves room for diplomacy to keep away from the worst,” mentioned Israeli political analyst Michael Horowitz.
