Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 180 people were killed and more than 700 wounded – including children, women and medics – in Israeli strikes on Monday that targeted southern Lebanon.
This is the highest daily death toll since fighting between Israel and Hizbullah started in October.
Lebanon’s health ministry has asked all hospitals in the south and east of the country to “stop all non-essential surgery in order to make space to treat the wounded due to the expanding Israeli aggression”.
Earlier Israel’s military had claimed it had targeted at least 300 Hizbullah locations inside Lebanon.
A new global order: Rising China and Russia rewrite the international rulebook
Schisms and sleaze plague Keir Starmer’s first Labour conference, risking long-term damage
‘Prime minister Farage’: Reform UK leader says party has ‘come of age’ and could win the next election
Middle East on brink of regional conflict as attacks on Hizbullah shift focus to Lebanon
Hizbullah claimed to have fired rockets at Israeli military bases in northern Israel “in response to the Israeli enemy attacks that targeted the south and Bekaa areas”.
The Israeli military said its defence array had intercepted many of at least 35 projectiles it identified coming from Lebanon.
The military warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate from villages where Hizbullah was storing weapons, bringing Israel’s 11-month conflict with the militia closer to all-out war after a week of escalation.
The announcement from Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, came shortly after Israel began what it said was a new round of “extensive strikes” across Lebanon – and suggested that Israel was preparing for another round of attacks.
In a statement published online, he said that Hizbullah over the years has stashed weapons, including cruise missiles, in houses and buildings throughout southern Lebanon, and called on residents to stay away from these sites.
The military published a map showing 17 villages and towns in southern Lebanon, but it did not say which of them would be targeted.
Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Mr Hagari said “we will do whatever is needed” in order to return evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes safely.
[ President Michael D Higgins accuses Israeli embassy of leaking letterOpens in new window ]
The evacuation order was Israel’s latest attempt to break Hizbullah, following clandestine operations last week that destroyed parts of the militia’s communications networks, as well as a rare strike on Beirut on Friday that destroyed a building where senior Hizbullah commanders were holding a meeting.
The new strikes on Monday reflected the failure of those attacks to force Hizbullah to back down.
Hizbullah enacted its own escalation over the weekend, firing a barrage of missiles on Sunday morning that hit areas roughly 30 miles south of the Lebanese border with Israel, its deepest strikes since the start of the war in October.
Hizbullah began firing at Israeli troops shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, attempting to show support for its Palestinian ally without starting its own all-out conflict. Israel responded with missiles and artillery fire, leading to regular exchanges of missiles and rockets, the evacuation of roughly 150,000 people on either side of the border, and widespread damage in the border areas.
Hizbullah has avoided turning the conflict into a no-holds-barred ground war, but it says it will not stop firing rockets until a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip. As a truce there is now a distant prospect, Israel is attempting more brazen attacks in order to force the group into disconnecting its fight from that of Hamas.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, pledged in a speech on Thursday to continue fighting while the war in Gaza continues. – The New York Times and Reuters
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis