YoIsrael again bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday, a day after intense attacks left more than 550 people dead, fueling fears of a regional conflict.
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Since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023 following the Hamas attack on Israeli soil, there have been almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, in support of its Palestinian ally, along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
But Monday was the deadliest day, when Israel bombed “some 1,600 terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. in the east, Hezbollah strongholds.
At least 558 people were killed in the attacks, including 50 children and 94 women, and more than 1,800 people were injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
“The vast majority, if not all, were unarmed people who were in their homes,” added Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad. The previous death toll from Monday’s bombings was 492.
The vast majority, if not all, were unarmed people who were in their homes.
Speaking at a press conference in Beirut, Abiad said two health centres and 14 ambulances and fire trucks had been attacked and destroyed.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli troops again attacked “dozens of Hezbollah targets in numerous areas in southern Lebanon,” a military statement said.
“Among the targets attacked were buildings storing weapons, command centres (of Hezbollah) and other infrastructure,” the statement said, adding that the strikes caused “secondary explosions” indicating the presence of weapons in the buildings.
The Air Force “will continue to operate to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure,” the statement added.
Since Monday, tens of thousands of Lebanese have also fled their homes in an atmosphere of terror and chaos, and dozens of schools have been set up to receive displaced people. Thousands of Lebanese have taken refuge in Beirut or Sidon, the largest city in the south of the country.
Many people spent the night in their cars, blocked on the roads leading to the capital. “When the shelling intensified and came closer, the children became afraid and we decided to leave,” said Hasan Banjak, who is sheltering in a school in Sidon.
The price paid by civilians is unacceptable and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon is paramount.
“We are deeply concerned by the serious escalation of attacks we witnessed yesterday. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes yesterday and tonight, and the number continues to rise,” said a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Matthew Saltmarsh, at a press conference in Geneva.
“This is a region that has already been devastated by war and a country that knows suffering all too well,” he added.
“The price paid by civilians is unacceptable and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon is paramount. International humanitarian law must be respected. There is an urgent need to end hostilities,” he said.
For its part, Israel said on Tuesday it had identified the launching of more than a hundred Hezbollah rockets against the north of the country, which preceded a new burst of five projectiles in the Haifa area in which a young Israeli was seriously injured.
“Emergency technicians and paramedics are treating and have evacuated a 25-year-old man in moderate condition with shrapnel wounds to Rambam Hospital,” the Magen David Adom emergency service said.
Around 9:40 in the morning, Alarm bells also rang in the Upper Galilee area, where some 50 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. “Most of them were intercepted and several fell in the area,” damaging buildings and causing fires, the Army said.
Due to increasing insecurity, more schools in northern Israel – in the villages south of Haifa such as Megido, Yokneam Illit, Daliyat al Karmel or Isfiya – have been closed, as were schools from Haifa to the northern border.
The Islamist group announced it had fired Fadi 2 missiles toward Israel overnight.
Alarm over escalation of tensions in the Middle East
The UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday will be dominated by fears of a regional war in the Middle East, following the intensification of the military escalation between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, while dozens of international leaders urged the parties to stop tensions and attacks.
“We are almost on the brink of all-out war,” warned European diplomat Josep Borrell.
Actions and counter-reactions risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence and dragging the entire Middle East into a regional conflict.
France has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Lebanon this week.
G7 foreign ministers meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York warned on Tuesday that “actions and counter-reactions” They risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence. and drag the entire Middle East into a broader regional conflict with unimaginable consequences.”
In a statement by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, as the G7’s representative, he called for an end to the “current destructive cycle” and stressed that “no country will benefit from further escalation in the Middle East.”
In Iran, President Masud Pazeshkian, who will give his first speech at the UN, accused Israel of seeking to “expand” the conflict in the Middle East.
Several Arab countries also condemned the massive Israeli bombing of various parts of the south and east of Lebanon as an “aggression against the sovereignty of Lebanon,” and the Arab League warned against the “painful consequences” of “this dangerous escalation” of the situation in the Middle East.
It threatens to blow up the regional situation in a way whose consequences will be painful for everyone.
“This dangerous escalation represents a blatant attack on Lebanese sovereignty and threatens to blow up the regional situation in a way whose consequences will be painful for all,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abulgheit said in a statement.
He urged that “influential powers must assume their responsibilities to stop this disastrous slide into a regional war, which Israeli leaders are pushing for personal and political ends.”
Egypt condemned “the extensive military operations in Lebanon, which have left dozens of victims,” and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelaty stressed in a statement the need to “move away from military solutions that will only lead to bloodshed and endanger the lives of civilians.”
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