Over 270 people killed as Israel launches massive air camapign against Lebanon

Israel launched a wide-scale and ferocious air campaign on Lebanon on Monday, bombarding the country’s south and east and killing over 270 people, while warning civilians to leave their homes.

In what has been the deadliest day in nearly a year of cross-border fighting between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel, the Israeli military claimed it conducted over 300 airstrikes on Monday morning.

The attacks, according to the Israeli military, were a "pre-emptive" strike aimed at "weakening" Hezbollah’s missile capabilities and stopping the group from launching an attack on Israel.

A second wave of air raids began just before noon; hundreds of more strikes were conducted.

Hezbollah fired rockets deep across the border overnight Saturday and Sunday in an initial response to a serious of blows last week which killed and wounded dozens of its members, but also civilians, among them children.

At least 274 people have been killed and over 700 wounded in the Israeli strikes, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

One of those killed was in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate in Lebanon’s northeast, the deepest Israel has hit since hostilities began last October.

'Leave now'

South Lebanon, already reeling from the violence since October, was rocked by massive airstrikes, as residents of several villages reported receiving text messages warning them to leave their homes.

The head of Lebanon's state-run telecoms operator Ogero told Reuters that Israel made over 80,000 call attempts on Monday, ordering people to leave.

"If you are present in a building that has weapons belonging to Hezbollah, distance yourself from the village until further notice," the text messages read.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military claimed that Hezbollah was storing weapons, including cruise missiles, in people’s homes.

Hezbollah has categorically denied the accusations, saying Israel used such pretexts to terrorise civilians and indiscriminately bomb populated areas.

Lebanon’s caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari said his ministry had also received a call with an automated voice telling them to leave the building.

"Of course we won’t leave the building," he told the Lebanon Debate website.

Over 100,000 Lebanese have already been forced out of their homes in many border villages, which have seen extensive damage from Israeli shelling and airstrikes. 

Jbeil hit for the first time

For the first time since the cross-border clashes began, in parallel with Israel’s war on Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a village near Laqlouq in the highlands of the Jbeil (Byblos) district in Mount Lebanon.

The area borders the Baalbek-Hermel governorate, which lies to the east of the Mount Lebanon governorate.

Rumours had spread earlier this year that Hezbollah was using tunnels in the Jbeil district to stash rockets, swiftly denied by the militant group and other officials from the region.

Like much of the country, the region has been spared the violence which has largely focused on south Lebanon, Baalbek-Hermel, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been hit three times by Israel since last October.

Death toll from Friday attack rises

The situation in Lebanon is still tense, especially for Hezbollah, following an unprecedented attack last week on 18 and 19 September, which saw Israeli intelligence detonate thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies across the country. 

More than 3,000 were injured in the two-day attacks, and at least 37 killed, including children.

It’s believed the Israeli intelligence manufactured the devices using a shell company and sent them to Lebanon, rigging them with small amounts of explosives.

Then on Friday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in a densely populated suburb south of Beirut. The latest death toll from that attack has been put at 52 with nine more missing.

Soon after the strike, it appeared that Israel killed the leader of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Ibrahim Aqil, and 14 other members of the group, among them senior commanders.

It was the latest in a series of huge assassinations which since last October have eliminated most of Hezbollah’s top commanders.

The Friday airstrike south of the capital – locally known as Dahyeh – was the third since October. In January this year Israel killed Hamas’ number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and in July killed Hezbollah’s number two also, Fouad Shukr.

Western concerns

US President Joe Biden told journalists on Sunday that he was "worried" about rising tensions in the Middle East.

"We’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we’re still pushing hard," Biden told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

The White House also said on Sunday that a military escalation in the region was "not in Israel’s best interest."

The United Nations, European Union and other states have also expressed grave concerns over the escalation.

French President Emmanuel Macron in a video message last week said his country stood by Lebanon, urging for a de-escalation between Hezbollah and Israel.

"Lebanon is struck by grief and fear, grief for all the civilian victims of this week’s attacks," Macron said with French and Lebanese flags behind him.

"While your country continues to overcome trials, Lebanon cannot live in fear of an imminent war. And I tell you very clearly, as I have told everyone, we must reject this inevitability," Macron continued.

The US and France are mediating efforts between Beirut and Tel Aviv to find a long-lasting settlement between the enemy states and end hostilities. The deal would see an official demarcation of the land border, and thousands of Lebanese armed forces deployed in the south with UN peacekeepers.

Although it has said it did not like to see a full-blown war erupt, Hezbollah has refused to lay down its arms before a ceasefire in Gaza is reached, and Israel has repeatedly threatened to invade south Lebanon if diplomatic efforts fail.

The Lebanese Shia group said it is ready for "all military possibilities" in the event a fully-fledged conflict does erupt.

Last week, following the pager and walkie-talkie blasts but a day before the Friday airstrike, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he "welcomed" an Israeli ground invasion of south Lebanon.

"They see it as a threat, but we see it as an opportunity … it would be easier for us to fight them on the ground than search for them one by one across the border," he said.