Israeli strikes cause deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly 2 decades.
Israel launched an intense barrage of airstrikes across swathes of Lebanon on Monday in what was the deadliest day for the country since at least the 2006 war fought between Israel and the powerful Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Terror and despair gripped Lebanese residents as Israeli bombs killed more than 500 people, including women and children, and wounded more than 1,800 others, authorities said, as residents fled their homes desperate to reach safety.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is changing the “balance of power” on its northern front as its military said it struck 1,600 Hezbollah assets across Lebanon on Monday and has not ruled out the possibility of a ground invasion.
Several countries have warned the strikes increase the risk of a wider regional war and have called for urgent international pressure to de-escalate the situation. Despite the scale and intensity of Monday’s strikes, neither side is calling the current escalation a war.
Here’s what we know.
On Monday, Israel intensified its air campaign on Hezbollah, launching “extensive strikes” targeting the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon. It marked the deadliest day of Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the 2006 war and hit multiple parts of the country, mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the country near Lebanon’s border with Syria and where the militant group has a strong presence.
Women, children and medics were among those killed and wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said Monday. It is unclear how many of the casualties were civilians or Hezbollah militants, but many of the locations described by Israel as Hezbollah targets are also residential neighborhoods and villages.
Israel said that among the Hezbollah targets were “cruise missiles” that had a reach of hundreds of kilometers, rockets, and explosive warheads, according to military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who claimed the munitions were stored in civilian homes.
Residents began to flee their homes after their phones began pinging with text messages from Israel and calls from unknown numbers urging them to evacuate immediately. A popular Lebanese radio station said it was hacked and its broadcast interrupted by an Israeli evacuation warning. The Israeli military warned civilians to leave areas in which Hezbollah operates, such as those used to store weapons.
Residents said they had little time to flee to safety before the bombing started. One resident in the southern city of Tyre on the coast of Lebanon said he heard Israeli warplanes “raining” bombs near his home from 5 a.m. local time on Monday.
Classes in schools and universities were canceled across the country and some flights to and from Beirut were suspended. Many schools were closed to be used as shelters for those seeking refuge.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired multiple rocket barrages into northern Israel, targeting the Ramat David airbase, Meggido airfield, and the Amos base, all located in the vicinity of the town of Afula in northern Israel.
Later Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. The Israeli military said it intercepted most of the 50 projectiles but that some had damaged buildings in the area. Israeli police said the attack caused several fires but no injuries. Around 100 projectiles had been fired towards Israel on Tuesday, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told CNN.
Meanwhile, the Israeli cabinet declared a “special situation” across the country, giving it the power to impose restrictions on civilian life including limits on public gatherings, an Israeli official told CNN.
