Marjayoun: Israeli airstrikes killed more than 356 Lebanese civilians and fighters on Monday, marking the deadliest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah since the 2006 war. The strikes came as Israel warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group. More than 1,240 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Lebanese authorities.
The Israeli military reported hitting some 300 Hezbollah targets, focusing on weapons storage sites. Residential areas were also struck in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, known as a Hezbollah stronghold. In one of the most distant strikes, Israeli warplanes bombed a wooded area in Byblos, over 80 miles north of the border with Israel. The expanded air offensive also targeted areas along Lebanon’s eastern border, where Hezbollah has maintained a strong presence since its founding in the early 1980s.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s spokesperson, warned residents of the Bekaa Valley to evacuate immediately if they were near Hezbollah weapons storage facilities. As the airstrikes continued, Hezbollah retaliated with a barrage of rockets, targeting an Israeli military post in Galilee and a defence facility in Haifa for a second consecutive day.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens blared in response to the incoming rocket fire from Hezbollah. This exchange of strikes and counterstrikes intensified after Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, drones, and missiles into Israel on Sunday. That attack was in retaliation for Israeli strikes that killed a top Hezbollah commander and dozens of fighters.
Amid the escalating violence, fears of a broader war between Israel and Hezbollah are growing, even as Israel remains embroiled in its ongoing military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its attacks in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-backed militant group that has been engaged in a bloody conflict with Israel since October.
Amid the rising tensions, thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes in southern Lebanon. The highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with vehicles as residents sought refuge in Beirut, in what has been described as the largest exodus since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
While many have evacuated, it remains unclear how many civilians still live in Hezbollah-occupied areas that are now in Israel’s crosshairs.
Associated Press journalists in southern Lebanon reported heavy airstrikes throughout Monday, hitting multiple locations, including areas far from the Israeli border. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency confirmed that strikes had also hit the central province of Byblos, the first such attack on the region since the current conflict began in October. No injuries were reported there, but in the northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, at least one shepherd was killed and two other people were wounded.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, Monday’s strikes left 356 dead. The ministry urged hospitals in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley to postpone non-urgent surgeries in order to prioritise care for the growing number of casualties from Israel’s expanding military campaign.
Israeli military officials indicated that the current focus is on aerial operations, with no immediate plans for a ground invasion. The strikes are aimed at crippling Hezbollah’s ability to launch further attacks, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Lebanese media reported that residents had received text messages warning them to evacuate buildings where Hezbollah stores weapons. The messages, written in Arabic, warned residents to leave their villages until further notice. Hezbollah, meanwhile, characterised these warnings as part of Israel’s ongoing psychological warfare.
Ziad Makary, Lebanon’s information minister, condemned the Israeli warnings and urged citizens not to panic. “This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy,” Makary said in a statement from his office in Beirut.
The escalating conflict has left hundreds dead on both sides of the border and displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Israel has accused Hezbollah of embedding military infrastructure in civilian areas in southern Lebanon, turning towns and villages into de facto militant bases.