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24-09-2024
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 100 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Israeli strikes on Monday.
Israel says strikes against Hezbollah are “deepening” as citizens in southern Lebanon have received phone messages warning them to leave places used by the Iran-backed group.
A Lebanese minister calls the messages “psychological war”, while Israel’s defence minister says strikes will continue “until we achieve our goals to return the residents of the north safely to their homes.”
Fears of an all-out regional conflict in the Middle East have grown in the past week – cross-border attacks have ratcheted up after a series of exploding device attacks on Hezbollah members which were widely blamed on Israel.
People in southern Lebanon say they’ve been receiving text and voice messages warning them to stay away from buildings used by Hezbollah. The country’s information minister says his office has also received one of those phone messages.
According to Lebanon’s state-owned telecoms company Ogero, there were more than 80,000 of these call attempts made.
The head of Ogero tells Reuters news agency that the calls were a form of “psychological warfare to make havoc and chaos” from Israel.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health issued a statement earlier this morning requesting that all hospitals in the south of the country cancel non-urgent surgeries.
Clinicians are being told to prepare for the wounded who may arrive in emergency departments.
As we just reported, there have already been hundreds of people wounded from this morning’s air strikes.
Schools are also closed in the south of the country and in Beirut’s southern suburbs for today and tomorrow, according to the education ministry.
Hezbollah has fired dozens of rockets towards northern Israel, the group says in a statement.
It says military bases and logistics warehouses were targeted with “dozens” of missiles, in response to Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon.
In a separate statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says at least 35 rockets were fired from Lebanon and several impacts identified.
People in southern Lebanon including a government minister say they’ve been receiving text and voice messages warning them to leave villages where Hezbollah is operating and storing weapons. Israel’s military have also issued similar warnings publicly, telling people to avoid being near Hezbollah targets.
Hundreds of strikes: This wave of strikes from Israel into Lebanon have been described by our correspondent as some of the most intense of the conflict. The IDF said mid-morning that it had attacked more than 300 Hezbollah sites.
One dead, several wounded: The latest update we have from Lebanon’s health ministry is that one person has been killed in the latest strikes, just north of the Bekaa Valley. Others have been injured in the Hermel region and in the town of Aitaroun.
Strikes “deepening”; Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says the strikes are intensifying and will continue “until we achieve our goals” of returning thousands of displaced Israelis to the north.
What next? The question many are asking is, will Israel begin a ground invasion? Our international correspondent says it could be going in that direction but a senior Israeli military official says at the moment the IDF is currently focusing on its “aerial campaign only.” (Int’l News Desk)
