{"id":8673,"date":"2024-09-24T12:27:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T07:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=8673"},"modified":"2024-09-24T12:27:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T07:27:51","slug":"israeli-strikes-on-lebanon-kill-nearly-500-displace-thousands-health-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/news\/israeli-strikes-on-lebanon-kill-nearly-500-displace-thousands-health-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill nearly 500, displace thousands: health ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli air strikes<\/a> on Lebanon killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border attacks since the Gaza conflict<\/a> began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent conflict erupted<\/a> after Hamas and other Palestinian fighters launched the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, drawing in Hezbollah and other allegedly Iran-backed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel claimed it killed<\/a> a \u201clarge number\u201d of Hezbollah fighters when it hit about 1,600 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including a \u201ctargeted strike\u201d in Beirut in what the Israeli military called \u201cOperation Northern Arrows\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third-in-command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that it had launched \u201cvolleys\u201d of missiles at Israeli military sites, after state media reported new raids in eastern Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People in Israel\u2019s coastal city of Haifa were seen running for cover on Monday when air raid sirens sounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Minister Firass Abiad said \u201cthousands of families\u201d had been displaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explosions near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon sent smoke billowing into the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe sleep and wake up to bombardment<\/a>\u2026 that\u2019s what our life has become,\u201d said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the southern village of Zawtar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Most difficult week for Hezbollah\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Global powers urged Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of all-out war, as the violence shifted from Israel\u2019s southern border with Gaza to its northern frontier with Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France and Egypt called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene, while Iraq requested an urgent meeting of Arab states on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the strikes hit combat infrastructure Hezbollah had been building for two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called Monday \u201ca significant peak\u201d in the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the most difficult week for Hezbollah since its establishment \u2014 the results speak for themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, \u201cEntire units were taken out of battle as a result of the activities conducted at the beginning of the week in which numerous terrorists were injured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was acting to change the \u201csecurity balance\u201d in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Hezbollah wave of rockets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hezbollah, which has been trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of Hamas, said it was in a \u201cnew phase\u201d of confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said it launched rockets at Israeli military sites near Haifa and two bases in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the south and the Bekaa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack came after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut on Friday killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil, and coordinated communications device blasts<\/a> that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah began in Oct, tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Israeli military official, who cannot be further identified under military rules, said the operation seeks to \u201cdegrade threats\u201d from Hezbollah, push them back from the border, and then to destroy infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nations and world powers to deter what he called Israel\u2019s \u201cplan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Full-fledged war\u2019 nearing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel\u2019s main ally<\/a> and weapons supplier, said Washington was \u201cworking to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon said it was sending a small number of additional US military personnel to the Middle East after thousands were deployed earlier alongside warships, fighter jets and air defence systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity at the UN General Assembly, said that Washington opposed an Israeli ground invasion targeting Hezbollah and had \u201cconcrete ideas\u201d on how to de-escalate the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that \u201cno country stands to gain\u201d from escalating conflict, warning of \u201cunimaginable consequences\u201d if a regional war broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel and Hezbollah were \u201calmost in full-fledged war\u201d, ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN chief Antonio Guterres was \u201cgravely alarmed\u201d by civilian casualties in Lebanon, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon warned \u201cany further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qatar, a mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, said Israel\u2019s bombardment of Lebanon \u201cputs the region on the brink of the abyss\u201d, while Turkey said the strikes threatened \u201cchaos\u201d and Jordan urged an immediate end to the escalation \u201cbefore it is too late\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the strikes and ordered Palestinian medical staff in Lebanon to provide support for the wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, accused Israel of seeking \u201cto create this wider conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamas\u2019s Oct 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP<\/em> tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 251 hostages also seized by Hamas, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,455 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory\u2019s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border attacks since the Gaza conflict began. Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year. The recent conflict erupted after Hamas and other Palestinian […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}