Lebanon: Nearly 500 killed in Israel’s biggest airstrike on Hezbollah since Gaza war; UN chief ‘alarmed’

Nearly 500 people were killed across southern Lebanon after Israel launched its biggest ariel offensive against Iran-backed Shite militant group Hezbollah since the beginning of war in Gaza on October 7. Lebanese health ministry said around 1,650 people were wounded and about 100 women and children were among the dead.

Minor clashes and skirmishes were a daily affair along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon as Hezbollah continued to launch hundreds of rockets into Israel on a daily basis. The group said its actions are in solidarity with the people of Palestine surviving Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza.

Tensions escalated in August as Hezbollah launched rockets and drones in retaliation for Israel killing its top commander Faud Shukr in July. On Sunday, the militant group launched more than 100 rockets again as it declared an “open-ended battle of reckoning” with Israel after hundreds of pagers and radios exploded across Lebanon in serial explosions. Lebanon blamed Israel and its top spy agency Mossad for the incident targeting Hezbollah members.

Israel had claimed that diplomatic efforts to stop Hezbollah’s attacks are failing, and an all-out war might be the only way to stop the attacks on its northern borders and enable citizens to return to their homes.

Here are latest updates on Israel-Lebanon conflict

-Israeli military said it will widen its aerial assault campaign against what it believes are Hezbollah’s weapon sites in southern and eastern Lebanon. An Israeli military official said the campaign is focussed on degrading the group’s military capability, indicating a ground invasion was not imminent.

-Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted “complicated days” ahead saying “I want to clarify Israel’s policy: we do not wait for the threat, we are ahead of it”.

-In a video message to the Lebanese people, Netanyahu said Israel’s campaign is not against them and urged them to “get out of harm’s way now”. “For long Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. These are aimed directly at our cities and citizens. To defend our people against Hezbollah strikes, we must take those weapons,” he added.

-Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of “irreversible consequences and accused Israel of wanting to drag the entire Middle East into a full-blown war. “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences would be irreversible,” he said.

-United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “gravely alarmed by the escalating situation” in Lebanon. He expressed alarm on both Israel’s bombing campaign and Hezbollah’s continued strikes into Israel. “All efforts must be devoted to a diplomatic solution,” he said.

-EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the clashes threaten to push the region into an “all-out war”. “I can say we are almost in a full-fledged war. We’re seeing more military strikes, more damage, more collateral damage, more victims,” Borrell said ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the UN.

-The United States said it was going to discuss “concrete ideas” with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening. President Biden said that the US was trying to calm the situation in Lebanon.