Israel strikes kill 105 in Lebanon; Hezbollah loses 7 commanders in a week: 10 points
Israel continued its bombardment of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday, killing over 100 people in a day. It opened another front as it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen amid fears of a wider conflagration in the Middle East.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 105 people were killed and 359 wounded because of Israel’s attack on Sunday.
The attack came two days after Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which has engaged in cross-border fire with the country to show solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
Here are the top updates on the Lebanon-Israel war:
Lebanon’s health ministry said there had been deadly air raids near the main southern city of Sidon Sunday.
Dozens had died in the east, in the south and in and around Beirut. France’s foreign ministry said a second French national had also been killed in Lebanon.
On Monday, witnesses told foreign news agencies that Israel attacked central Beirut for the first time since the war in Gaza began last year. The airstrike hit a multi-story residential building. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered under the building, where the strike appeared to have targeted an apartment. The country had been targeting southern Beirut where the Lebanese militant group has a strong presence.
On Sunday, Israel killed Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group’s Central Council. Hezbollah confirmed his death. He was the seventh senior Hezbollah leader who died in a week. The group also said that another senior commander, Ali Karaki, died in the Friday strike that killed Nasrallah.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa as well.
They claimed that Israel targeted buildings where civilians had been living. The Lebanese health ministry reported at least 14 medics were killed over two days in the south.
Hezbollah has significantly increased its attacks over the past week in response to the Israeli hostilities. The attacks injured several people and caused damage. However, most of the salvos were intercepted by Israel’s defense systems.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that dozens of its aircraft struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack. They attacked power plants and sea-port facilities in Yemen’s Hodeida. The Houthis had launched a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion airport on Saturday when Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving.
US President Joe Biden said that he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He cautioned against an all-out war in the Middle East.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure. However, he warned the group would work quickly to rebuild it. On Nasrallah’s death, he said the people of the world would be safer without him. He said it would be tough for the group to fill the leadership vacuum.
The ongoing war has triggered a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. In less than two weeks of war, 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — have died in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. The local government says 2,50,000 people were in shelters and nearly four times the number had been staying at their relatives’ houses.
The war in the Middle East began on October 7 last year when Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians. They also took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed 41,595 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.