'We will be back,' say Lebanese fleeing heavy Israeli airstrikes in the south

Since Monday, hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon have packed their belongings and taken to the roads leading north, fleeing a wave of intense Israeli bombardment.

Israeli forces said it struck over a thousand Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. At the time of writing, Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes had killed over 560 people, including 50 children, and wounded over 1700. In comparison, this is almost half the death toll that was recorded during the six-week war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Monday also marked the deadliest day in Lebanese history since the end of the civil war in 1990. The confirmed death toll yesterday - 492 - was more than the number of people who died in the Beirut port explosion in 2020.

In response to Monday's airstrikes, Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of missiles at a military base in northern Israel. Israel has since continued to strike areas across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley region in the east. The escalation from Israel has raised fears that the US, Israel's close ally, and Iran, which backs Hezbollah, will be dragged into a wider war. However, a senior official said the US did not support a cross-border escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.