Israel carried out more air strikes on Hezbollah targets in its heaviest and deadliest bombardment on Lebanon since 2006, when the two sides fought a devastating war.
Lebanese officials said strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 558 people, including 50 children, and wounded more than 1,800. Most of the causalities were in south Lebanon and the Bekaa region in the northeast, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Israel said its attacks are aimed at Hezbollah forces that attempt to hide, along with their missiles and other weapons, among civilians. On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said an air strike in Beirut killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, head of Hezbollah’s Missiles and Rockets Force.
Although an Israeli military official previously said the country is focused on its aerial campaign and suggested it wouldn’t also need a ground offensive into Lebanon, Israel’s defense chief sought to send a different message on Tuesday.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s office published pictures of him inspecting Israeli troops simulating combat in Lebanon. “Any Hezbollah force that you may encounter will be destroyed,” he told them, according to a statement, saying that the enemy fighters had been degraded while Israeli forces had been hardened by fighting against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel says its bombing campaign is necessary to stop almost 12 months of missile and drone attacks from Hezbollah and that diplomatic efforts have failed.
Hezbollah fired its own rocket salvos into northern Israel, claiming to have attacked multiple locations on Tuesday. Israeli police said parts of projectiles and interceptor missiles fell in several locations in the Galilee region, while some Israelis reported injuries from shrapnel.
Hezbollah began cross-border rocket fire soon after the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza erupted in October, fighting in solidarity with the Islamist organization. Hezbollah has said it won’t stop until there’s a cease-fire in the Palestinian territory, a prospect that looks unlikely anytime soon with truce talks deadlocked.
Israel’a latest attacks against Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political party, are causing chaos among civilians. Lebanese authorities are using schools, universities and other government buildings to house thousands of people fleeing the violence. There was heavy traffic on roads Monday from the south to Beirut, the capital.
Beirut hasn’t been the target of a major bombardment, but Israel has struck it several times in the past two days in attacks seemingly aimed at specific Hezbollah commanders.
The Lebanese health ministry urged countries to donate medical aid to help hospitals in the targeted areas that have become overwhelmed.
The hostilities are likely to exacerbate the economic and political turmoil Lebanon’s been in for about five years. It has only a caretaker government because talks to elect a new president failed, inflation’s running at 35%, and the country’s in default on tens of billions of dollars of international bonds.
Health Minister Firas Abiad said hospitals have dealt with more than 5,000 people in the past week wounded in the strikes. He compared that with 11,000 during the entire 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel said it hit around 1,600 Hezbollah targets including rocket launchers, command posts and other infrastructure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objective is to degrade the militant group’s capabilities and force it to move fighters back from the border with Israel.
The government says that’s necessary to enable the return of tens of thousands of displaced civilians to northern Israel. A similar number have fled southern Lebanon.
The latest escalations have stoked concern among the U.S., European and Arab governments. U.S. officials urged Netanyahu in the past week to avoid more aggressive military action against Hezbollah for fear of triggering a wider war that would draw in Washington and Tehran, the militant group’s main sponsor.
French President Emmanuel Macron sent Jean-Yves Le Drian, his special envoy for Lebanon, to Beirut on Monday. Le Drian met the Lebanese army chief and is scheduled to meet more officials and politicians on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia warned of the “dangers of spreading violence across the region.”
Iran suggested it wanted to ease tensions. “We’re willing to put all our weapons aside so long as Israel is willing to do the same,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in New York, where he’s attending this week’s United Nations General Assembly. But he also struck more combative notes, saying that “it’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region.”
Netanyahu says Iran is continuing to arm and fund Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli groups across the Middle East. He’s scheduled to speak at the U.N. later this week, though his arrival in New York has been delayed because of the hostilities with Hezbollah.
Hamas and Hezbollah are designated by the U.S. as terrorist groups. The latter is more ideologically linked to Iran and is seen as the most powerful non-state actor in the Middle East.
The Israeli strikes came days after an attack in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded. Hezbollah and Iran said Israel was to blame. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was responsible.
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