The Israeli military said Monday evening it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details.
Marjayoun: In the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel on Monday launched intense air strike on Lebanon killing over 350 people including more than 60 women and children. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
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 2006.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and wounded 1,246 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
The death toll far surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at 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, you can come back safely to your homes.”
The Israeli military said Monday evening it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported the Beir al-Abed neighborhood in southern Beirut was hit with three missiles. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded. The area was cordoned off and journalists were not allowed access.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut the earlier 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 announced it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes struck residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border north of Beirut.
The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley. The warnings left open the possibility some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing they are at risk.
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing its “next phases” of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were “proactive,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said more details would be released in the near future, and that the goal was to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.