On September 23, 2024, thick smoke billowed from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Margeyoun, near the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Rabbi So | AFP | Getty Images
Israeli air strikes in Lebanon on Monday killed more than 350 people, including more than 60 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, making it the deadliest attack since Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah. The Israeli military warned residents of southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate before expanding airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.
Thousands of Lebanese fled south, with the main highway in the southern port city of Sidon packed with cars heading for Beirut in the largest exodus since 2006.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said the attack killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and injured 1,246 others, the single-day death toll in a country still reeling from deadly attacks on communications equipment last week. The numbers are shocking.
The death toll far exceeds the devastating Beirut port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and injuring more than 6,000.
In a recording, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israel’s call to evacuate and said he “takes this warning seriously.”
“Please stay out of danger now,” Netanyahu said. “As soon as our operation is over, you can go home safely.”
Israeli warplanes struck 1,300 Hezbollah targets on Monday, destroying cruise missiles, rockets carrying heavy explosives, long- and short-range rockets and attack drones, Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said.
He said many of the weapons were hidden in residential areas and showed photos of weapons he said were hidden in private homes.
“Hezbollah has turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” he told a news conference.
Israel estimates that Hezbollah possesses about 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range warheads capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
Earlier on Monday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted attack in Beirut. It did not provide details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the Bel Abed neighborhood in southern Beirut was hit by three missiles. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television said six people were wounded.
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad told a news conference that earlier attacks hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across much of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.
On September 23, 2024, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, a Syrian family waited in a traffic jam with their luggage in the back of a truck.
Mahmoud Zayat | AFP | Getty Images
There were some strikes in residential areas in the southern and eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a forest as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the northern border of Beirut.
The military said it was expanding its air strikes into valleys along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah is already deeply entrenched in the valley, having been established in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel’s chief of military staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing for the “next phase” of operations against Hezbollah and that its airstrikes were “proactive” and targeted infrastructure built by the group over the past 20 years. .
Halevi said more details would be released in the near future, with the goal of returning displaced Israelis to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at Israel, including at military bases. It also hit facilities of the Haifa-based Rafael defense company for the second day in a row.
As Israel launched the attack, Israeli authorities reported a series of air raid sirens going off in northern Israel, warning of rocket attacks from Lebanon.
It was the first such evacuation warning in nearly a year of escalating conflict and came after a particularly fierce exchange of fire on Sunday. Hezbollah fired some 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for an attack that killed a senior commander and dozens of fighters.
While Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and trying to negotiate the release of dozens of hostages taken in an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the growing number of strikes and counterattacks has raised fears of an all-out war. . Hezbollah has vowed to continue its attacks in solidarity with the Iran-backed militant group Hamas.
Fighters of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah carry the body of the group’s top military commander Ibrahim Aqil during a funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 22, 2024.
– |AFP|Getty Images
Associated Press reporters in southern Lebanon reported heavy airstrikes on many areas Monday morning, including some far from the border.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the attack hit the central Byblos province for the first time since the exchanges began.
Israel also bombed targets in the northeastern regions of Baalbek and Hermel, killing a shepherd and wounding two relatives, the news agency said, adding that a total of 30 people were injured.
The Lebanese Health Ministry has asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone non-urgent surgeries to prepare hospitals to treat people injured by “Israeli’s expanding aggression against Lebanon”.
An Israeli military official said Israel was focusing on air operations and had no immediate plans for ground operations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations, said the attack was aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more attacks against Israel.
Lebanese media reported that residents received text messages saying: “If there are Hezbollah weapons hidden in your building, please stay away from the village until further notice.”
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makkari said he received a recorded message at his office in Beirut asking people to leave the building.
“This is being done within the framework of psychological warfare carried out by the enemy,” Makari said, urging people “not to pay too much attention to this matter.”
Communities on both sides of the border have been largely deserted as fighting continues almost daily.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of turning entire communities in the south into militant bases, hiding rocket launchers and other infrastructure. Even without the involvement of ground forces, this could lead to a particularly heavy bombing campaign by Israeli forces.
Israel launched an airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday, killing a senior Hezbollah military commander and a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Thousands of communications equipment, mainly used by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon last week, killing 39 people and injuring nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.
Hezbollah began firing on Israel the day after the Oct. 7 attack, allegedly to neutralize Israeli forces and help Palestinian militants in Gaza. Israel retaliated with air strikes, and the conflict continued to intensify.
Israel has vowed to drive Hezbollah from its borders so its citizens can return home. Hezbollah has said it will continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, but that goal appears increasingly elusive as the war approaches its anniversary.
On October 7, militants led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 people. Most of the others who died were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants. The report said women and children accounted for slightly more than half of the victims. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants but has provided no evidence.
