Israel-Lebanon latest: Israeli military fires dozens more missiles as thousands forced to flee homes
Israel says it’s ‘not looking for wars’ but army is ‘in full readiness’ to push Hezbollah back from border
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Israel has fired dozens more rockets at what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after the deadliest day of strikes in the area in nearly two decades.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, also backed by Iran.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah militant cell and its artillery and tanks hit other Hezbollah targets in the south overnight in the latest round of strikes.
Hezbollah on Tuesday morning said it had attacked several Israeli military targets, including an explosives factory 60 km (37 miles) into Israel.
It comes as thousands were pictured fleeing southern Lebanon in loaded cars, vans and trucks. Highways north were gridlocked. Images also showed scores of civilians sleeping on beaches and walkways after having fled last night.
Lebanese authorities said Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon on Monday had killed nearly 500 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for safety.
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Israel is bombing targets across many parts of Lebanon, striking senior militants in Beirut and apparently hiding bombs in pagers and walkie-talkies. Hezbollah is firing rockets and drones deep into northern Israel, setting buildings and cars alight.
But no one is calling it a war — not yet.
Israeli officials say they are not seeking war with Hezbollah and that it can be avoided if the militant group halts its attacks and backs away from the border. Hezbollah also says it doesn’t want a war but is prepared for one — and that it will keep up the strikes on Israel that it began in the wake of ally Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly traded fire since then — but the intensity rose to another level Monday, when Israeli airstrikes killed more than 350 people, according to Lebanese officials. That would make it the deadliest day in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006.
“If someone had told me or most analysts in summer 2023 that Hezbollah is striking Israeli bases in Israel, and Israel is striking southern Lebanon and parts of southern Beirut, I would have said, OK, that’s an all-out war,” said Andreas Krieg, a military analyst at King’s College London.
The term hasn’t yet been applied to the current conflict because “there haven’t been any boots on the ground,” but that might be “the wrong metric,” he added.
492 killed in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war
Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 490 people including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities have said.
The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its 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 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 communication devices last week.
Mapped: Israel strikes on Lebanon targets killing 492
Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon which killed 492 came after a day after Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets into northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa.
Hezbollah’s rockets were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday that killed a top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen members, along with civilians including women and children.
Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000. Lebanon blamed the attacks on Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny its responsibility.
In Pictures: Israeli airstrikes destroy Beirut suburb
This is the damaged vehicle and buildings seen in the southern suburb of Beirut after an Israeli military strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, 23 September 2024.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they conducted a ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut on 23 September after the Israeli military announced that it launched ‘extensive’ airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Lebanese residents of villages in the Beqaa Valley ‘who are inside or near houses where rockets and weapons are stored’ have been warned to ‘move away immediately! For your safety and protection’, the statement added.
Charity suspends work in Bekaa Valley
ActionAid’s partner, The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), which works in the Bekaa Valley, has had to suspend its activities due to the escalating violence.
RDFL runs two centres providing essential protection services for Palestinian and Syrian refugees, as well as host communities in Lebanon.
Malak, Safe Space Officer from The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), ActionAid Partner in West Bekaa Valley said people in desperate need of assistance are too afraid to leave their homes amidst the ongoing conflict.
She said: “A significant displacement is underway, with many families fleeing to Jeb Jennine, which is seen as safer than the surrounding villages.
“Schools are being converted into shelters for the displaced, and the air is filled with the constant sound of ambulances. There’s a growing concern that the situation may worsen in the coming hours.
“People are arriving with nothing after being forced to abandon their homes. Their immediate needs must be addressed urgently.”
Lebanese refugees describe fleeing Israeli airstrikes
Ramzieh Dawi had arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby.
“These are the only things I brought,” she said, gesturing at the three tote bags she carried.
Fatima Chehab, who came with her three daughters from the area of Nabatieh, said her family had been displaced twice in quick succession.“We first fled to stay with my brother in a nearby area, and then they bombed three places next to his house,” she said.
Some people waited for hours in gridlocked traffic to get to what they hoped would be safety.
At a public high school in the capital’s Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood, a few dozen men, women and children were milling around as volunteers registered them.
Yahya Abu Ali, who fled with his family from the village of Doueir in Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, struck a defiant tone.
“Don’t think that an airplane or a missile will defeat us, or that a wounded person or a martyr on the ground will weaken us,” he said.
“On the contrary, it gives us strength, determination, and resilience.”
But Abu Ali also admitted that he was worried about his four siblings and their families who remained behind in southern Lebanon.
“God willing, I hope they will make it out,” he said.
US sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel and Hezbollah
The US is sending additional troops to the Middle East during a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon has said.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do.
The US currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.
The new deployments come after significant strikes by Israeli forces against targets inside Lebanon that have killed hundreds and as Israel is preparing to conduct further operations and the State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.
Ali Karaki - third highest ranking Hezbollah member - ‘in full health’ after Israeli strikes in Beirut
Hezbollah sources hit back at rumours that Ali Karaki was killed in the latest wave of Israeli air strikes.
They said: “There is no truth to the enemy’s claims of assassinating the Mujahid Ali Karaki, and we confirm that he is in full health and wellness.”
Karaki is in charge of Hezbollah’s so-called “Southern Front,” responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon.
He is third in command of Hezbollah’s armed forces and is the most senior figure after the assassinations of commanders Fuad Shukr, and Ibrahim Aqil.
Iran's President accuses Israel of seeking wider Mideast war and laying 'traps' to lead Iran into it
Iran’s president has accused Israel of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying “traps” to lead his country into a wider conflict.
Masoud Pezeshkian told about two dozen media representatives that Iran doesn’t want to see the current war in Gaza and airstrikes across the Israeli-Lebanon border expanded.
He said while Israel insists it doesn’t want a wider war, it is taking actions that show otherwise.
Mr Pezeshkian pointed to the deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, and the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on the eve of his inauguration.
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