Israel’s military said it launched airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon on Monday, which Lebanese authorities said had killed 492 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for safety in the country’s deadliest day in decades.
After some of the heaviest cross-border exchanges of fire since hostilities flared in October, Israel warned people in Lebanon to evacuate areas where it said the armed movement was storing weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a short video statement addressed to the people of Lebanon.
“Israel’s war is not with you, it’s with Hezbollah. For too long Hezbollah has been using you as human shields,” he said.
Families from south Lebanon loaded cars, vans and trucks with belongings and people, sometimes multiple generations in one vehicle. As bombs rained down, children crammed onto parents’ laps and suitcases were tied to car roofs.
Highways north were gridlocked. “I grabbed all the important papers and we got out. Strikes all around us. It was terrifying,” said Abed Afou, who was with his family, including three sons aged 6 to 13 and several other relatives. They sat in traffic as it crawled north.
They did not know where they would stay, he said, but just wanted to reach Beirut.
Nasser Yassin, the Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters 89 temporary shelters in schools and other facilities had been activated, with capacity for more than 26,000 people as civilians fled “Israeli atrocities”.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas.
Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, east and north, including “launchers, command posts and terrorist infrastructure.” The Israeli Air Force struck about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, it said.
Lebanon health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed, including 35 children, and 1,645 wounded. One Lebanese official said it was Lebanon’s highest daily death toll from violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
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The fighting has raised fears that the U.S., Israel’s close ally, and Iran will be sucked into a wider war.
Saudi Arabia expressed deep concern on Monday and urged all parties to exercise restraint, state news agency SPA reported.
A senior U.S. State Department official said the United States did not support a cross-border escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and that Washington was going to discuss “concrete ideas” with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening.
Israeli officials have said the recent uptick in airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon is designed to force the Iran-aligned group to agree to a diplomatic solution.
The U.S. official, briefing reporters in New York on condition of anonymity, pushed back on the Israeli position, saying the Biden administration was focused on “reducing tensions … and breaking the cycle of strike-counterstrike.”
