Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed 492 people and wounded 1,645, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, as Israel sharply expanded its campaign against Hezbollah.
The reported toll included 35 children and 58 women, Lebanese authorities said. The Associated Press described the barrage as the deadliest in Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The strikes hit parts of southern and eastern Lebanon after the Israeli military warned residents in those areas to leave their homes ahead of a wider operation.
Thousands of people fled southern villages, with traffic building on the main route out of the southern port city of Sidon toward Beirut. AP photographs and reporting described families sheltering in schools and public spaces after leaving areas under fire. Lebanon’s government ordered schools and universities closed across much of the country and began preparing shelters for displaced people.
Israel said the strikes were aimed at Hezbollah. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Monday, including cruise missiles, short- and long-range rockets and attack drones. He said some weapons were concealed in residential areas and argued that Hezbollah had turned southern Lebanon into a war zone.
Hagari said Hezbollah had fired about 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since the previous October, including 250 on Sept. 23. The AP reported that Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepted rockets launched from Lebanon over northern Israel, including near Haifa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to follow evacuation instructions. In a recorded message, he told residents to move away from danger and said they could return after the operation ended. Hagari said Israel would do what it considered necessary to push Hezbollah back from the border and said the military was prepared for a ground invasion if required, though he did not provide a timetable.
The campaign also included a strike in Beirut. The Israeli military said it had conducted a targeted strike in the city, while Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that three missiles hit the Beir al-Abed neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded there.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. Other reported strike locations included residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The escalation came after months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah linked to the wider war that began in October 2023. By the end of Sept. 23, the scale of casualties, the evacuation warnings and the displacement from southern Lebanon signaled a major widening of the conflict on Israel’s northern front.
