Hundreds were killed and wounded on Monday, Lebanese authorities said.
The Israeli military expanded its Lebanon campaign with hundreds of airstrikes on Monday, as the long-simmering border conflict with Hezbollah threatened to explode into a larger war.
Dozens of Israeli warplanes struck more than 1,300 targets in southern Lebanon on Monday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
At least 492 people were killed and more than 1,600 wounded in the ongoing strikes, among them women, children and medical personnel, the Lebanon Ministry of Public Health said. Of those killed, 35 were children and 58 were women, the ministry said.
Gil Eliyahu/Reuters
Israel also said it launched a targeted strike in Beirut. At least six people were injured in that airstrike on a residential building in Bir al-Abd, a southern suburb of Beirut, according to Lebanese state media.
Hezbollah officials said senior commander Ali Karaki — who Israeli sources confirmed was the target of the Beirut strike — survived the attack.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel was changing “the security balance, the balance of power in the North.”
“For those who have not yet understood, I want to clarify Israel’s policy — we do not wait for a threat, we anticipate it,” Netanyahu said. “Everywhere, in every arena, at any time. We eliminate senior officials, eliminate terrorists, eliminate missiles — and our hands are bent.”
“Whoever tries to hurt us, we hurt him even more,” he added.
Mohammed Zaatari/AP
The attacks coincided with a warning by from IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari of more planned Israeli strikes against Hezbollah “terrorist infrastructure” in the border region and elsewhere.
Hagari said civilians in Lebanese villages used by Hezbollah for military purposes should “immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety.”
Video and photos showed bumper-to-bumper traffic as people tried to flee southern cities.
Following the intense strikes in the south of the country on Monday morning, Hagari said the IDF would soon start hitting targets in the eastern Bekaa Valley — another Hezbollah stronghold. Hagari claimed that every house by Israeli munitions contained “rockets, missiles, UAVs that are intended to kill Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah returned fire across the border with dozens of projectiles, the IDF said, with alarms sounding across the region. Some munitions were intercepted and some fell in open areas, the force wrote on social media.
There were about 250 launches from Lebanon into Israel on Monday, according to Israeli Emergency Officials. Hagari said there had been about 700 launches in the last week.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service reported at least one man injured by shrapnel in the Lower Galilee area and another lightly hurt while making his way to a shelter.