Lebanon: Israeli strikes kill at least 100, residents urged to evacuate

by Ariba Shahid and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel launched its largest series of air strikes against Hezbollah on Monday, targeting hundreds of the group’s Lebanese targets after asking civilians to evacuate areas where Tashal said weapons were hidden.

According to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, these simultaneous strikes in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley in the east and the north of the country near Syria, have left at least a hundred dead.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a message posted on the social network X that more than 300 Hezbollah targets had been targeted on Monday, after warning of imminent airstrikes on houses in Lebanon, in which “Hezbollah has hidden weapons.”

In retaliation, Hezbollah said on Monday that it had launched rockets at Israeli military posts.

“We are intensifying our attacks in Lebanon, the actions will continue until we achieve our goal of returning the residents of the north safely to their homes,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video released by his office on Monday.

“These are days when Israeli public opinion will have to show composure,” he added.

In the Sassine neighborhood of eastern Beirut, Joseph Ghafary, a civil servant, said he feared that Hezbollah would respond to the intensified Israeli strikes and a full-blown war could break out.

“If Hezbollah carries out a large-scale operation, Israel will respond and destroy more. We cannot tolerate this,” he said.

“Israel wants to strike, it wants to continue, which means it is pushing Hassan Nasrallah to start a war. This is really dangerous,” he added, referring to the Hezbollah leader.

Mohammed Sibai, a shopkeeper in Beirut’s Hamra district, told Reuters he saw the intensified strikes as “the beginning of war.” “If they want war, what can we do? It was imposed on us. We can’t do anything,” he said.

LAND INCURSION?

Asked by journalists during a press briefing about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said: “We will do whatever is necessary.”

The Israeli strikes come after some of the heaviest cross-border firefights since the start of a conflict that has intensified alongside the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite movement backed by Iran, has said it has supported Hamas since the latter’s attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the outbreak of war in the Palestinian enclave.

According to Daniel Hagari, Hezbollah has stored weapons, including cruise missiles, in homes and buildings in southern Lebanon over the years. He called on Lebanese residents to stay away from these sites.

According to a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon, residents in the area received calls from a Lebanese number on Monday urging them to immediately move 1,000 meters away from any position used by Hezbollah.

Daniel Hagari said that this warning had been “broadcast in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon.”

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said his ministry had received a similar call ordering the evacuation of the building, but said it would do nothing of the sort.

“It’s psychological warfare,” he told Reuters.

The Israeli army spokesman also presented a video showing Hezbollah operatives attempting to launch cruise missiles from a civilian’s home in Lebanon and the Israeli strike that followed moments before its launch.

“Hezbollah is putting you in danger. It is putting you and your families in danger,” he told the people of Lebanon.

Daniel Hagari said Israel began striking Hezbollah targets after identifying an attempted strike toward Israel.

On the social network X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Hassan Nasrallah of taking the Lebanese hostage by placing missiles and weapons in their homes and villages intended to threaten Israeli civilians.

LOW ALTITUDE MILITARY FLIGHTS

Israeli aircraft carried out a series of intense strikes on towns along Lebanon’s southern border and further north on Monday morning, witnesses told Reuters.

A rocket hit a mountainside east of the Lebanese port city of Byblos, according to a resident and Lebanese state media. The area, located between Christian and Shiite villages, had never been hit by airstrikes before.

Reuters journalists in the southern port city of Tyre heard warplanes flying low over southern Lebanon, as well as a series of air strikes nearby.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV channel reported Israeli airstrikes targeting the outskirts of many southern towns and villages, as well as the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. It broadcast footage showing columns of smoke rising into the sky in the south.

In addition to the strikes on Bekaa, warplanes also bombed the Hermel region in northern Lebanon, Al Manar also reported.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday he spoke with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the latest strikes against Hezbollah.

“I provided the Secretary with an assessment of the Hezbollah threat situation and briefed him on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operations aimed at reducing Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians,” he wrote on X. “We also discussed the broader regional situation,” he added.

(James Mackenzie and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Tom Perry and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; written by Michael Georgy; French version Camille Raynaud and Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer and Blandine Hénault)