Thousands flee Southern Lebanon as Israel strikes Hezbollah for second day
Panicked by the scope and intensity of the attacks, civilians fled southern Lebanon and sought the relative safety of Beirut, clogging the main roads leading into the capital
The Lebanese health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed and about 1,640 were injured on Monday, figures that did not distinguish between civilians and combatants
Israel’s military said early Tuesday that its air force was continuing to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after hundreds of people were killed the previous day in the deadliest barrage of Israeli attacks there in nearly two decades.
The strikes have unnerved the Middle East, sparking fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah as the fighting in Gaza continues with no clear prospect of a truce.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis that they were headed into “complicated days.”
The Israeli military said in a statement after midnight that it had struck 1,600 targets in Lebanon related to Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran, on Monday.
Panicked by the scope and intensity of the attacks, civilians fled southern Lebanon and sought the relative safety of Beirut, clogging the main roads leading into the capital.
The Lebanese health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed and about 1,640 were injured on Monday, figures that did not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It was the deadliest day in Lebanon since the country’s civil war ended in 1990, and the pace of Israeli strikes appeared to surpass that seen during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, in which more than 1,000 Lebanese people were killed over a month.
Air-raid sirens sounded across northern Israel into the early hours of Tuesday as rockets and other munitions were fired from Lebanon, most of which were intercepted. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported.
