Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Marjayoun, near the Lebanon-Israel border, on September 23, 2024.
Rabih Daher Afp | Getty Images
Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of an air campaign against Hezbollah.
Thousands of Lebanese fled south, and the highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading to Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the attack killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people – a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communications equipment last week.
In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israel’s call to evacuate, saying they were “taking this seriously.”
“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is over, you can return home safely.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the army would do “whatever it takes” to push Hezbollah from Lebanon’s border with Israel.
Hagari claimed Monday’s widespread airstrikes had caused heavy damage to Hezbollah. But he would not give a timeline for the ongoing operation and said Israel was ready to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon if necessary.
“We are not looking for wars. We are looking to take down the threats,” he said. “We will do whatever it takes to achieve this mission.”
Hagari said Hezbollah had launched about 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since last October, including 250 on Monday.
The military spokesman said Israeli warplanes struck 1,300 Hezbollah targets Monday, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets and attack drones. He said many were hidden in residential areas, showing photos of alleged weapons hidden in private homes.
“Hezbollah has turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” he said at a press conference.
Israel estimates that Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range projectiles that can strike anywhere in Israel.
Earlier on Monday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted attack in Beirut. It does not give details. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported three missiles struck the Beir al-Abed neighborhood south of Beirut. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said one person was wounded.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said earlier attacks hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close all over the country and began preparing shelters for displaced people.
Several attacks hit residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One of them reaches the forest area as far as Byblos, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Beirut’s northern border.
A Syrian family sits with their belongings in the back of a truck as they wait in a traffic jam in the city of Sidon, southern Lebanon, on September 23, 2024.
Mahmoud Zayyat Afp | Getty Images
Israel said it was expanding its airstrikes to include the valley area along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has a long presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing for the “next phase” of operations against Hezbollah, and that the airstrikes were “proactive,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said the goal is to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into Israel, including at military bases. Also targeted for the second day was the facility of the defense firm Rafael, headquartered in Haifa.
The evacuation warning is the first in nearly a year of escalating conflict and comes after an exchange of fire on Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for an attack that killed its top commander and dozens of fighters.
The increasing number of attacks and counter-attacks has raised fears of an all-out war, even as Israel fights Hamas in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of hostages taken in the October 7 attack from Hamas. Hezbollah has pledged to continue the offensive in solidarity with Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group.
A spokesman for President Joe Biden said the administration is concerned about the situation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and stressed that reaching a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Gaza is key to reducing tensions in the region.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with Biden to New York, where he will deliver his final address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
The death toll on Monday surpassed the Beirut port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse exploded, killing at least 218 people and injuring more than 6,000.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone non-essential operations to treat people injured by “Israeli aggression in Lebanon.”
Fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah carry the body of the group’s top military commander Ibrahim Aqil during his funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 22, 2024.
– | Afp | Getty Images
On Monday, residents received a text message that read: “If you are in the building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice,” Lebanese media reported.
Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.
“It comes in the framework of the psychological warfare that the enemy is doing,” Makary said, and urged people “not to give it more attention than it deserves.”
Communities on both sides of the border have been largely emptied by the almost daily exchange of fire.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of turning entire communities in the south into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure. This could lead the Israeli military to launch a heavy bombing campaign, even if no ground forces are involved.
An Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Beirut on Saturday killed a Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Last week, thousands of communication devices, mainly used by members of Hezbollah, exploded in various parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blames Israel, but Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the October 7 attack in what it said was an attempt to prompt Israeli forces to help Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict has escalated.
Hezbollah has said it will continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, but that seems increasingly elusive as the war nears its anniversary.
Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. About 100 prisoners are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most others. was released during a one-week truce in November.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. It said women and children make up more than half of those killed. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
