Lebanon endured another bloody 24 hours as relentless Israeli bombardment killed at least 105 people and injured 359 others, health officials said.
Air attacks were reported across Lebanon on Sunday and Monday night. The targets included a strike in the heart of the capital, Beirut, for the first time in years, signaling a potential further escalation toward all-out war.
While Israel said it attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets, Lebanese officials said the bombings hit homes and buildings in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, Baalbek-Hermel governorate and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Lebanese politicians described these attacks as a “massacre”.
In the early hours of Monday, an Israeli strike was reported in the Kola Bridge area in central Beirut.
It is the first Israeli attack within the confines of the capital since hostilities began last year and is seen as a further escalation of the conflict.
“No red lines”
The bombing of the municipal city of Beirut suggests that the Lebanese capital, which was previously seen as a refuge from Israeli attacks, is now also in the crosshairs – like much of the rest of the country.
The assault killed at least three people, Lebanese media reported. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an armed group active in Lebanon and Gaza, claimed the trio were members.
“This is the first time that a district of the capital has been affected. Previous attacks targeted the southern suburbs of the country,” notes Tel Aviv Tribune’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut. “So this is Israel, very powerful, which feels that it can act with little restraint and that there are no red lines. »
Another attack in the El-Buss refugee camp in the south of the country killed Hamas commander in Lebanon Fateh Sharif, the armed group said in a statement Monday. Members of his family were also reportedly killed.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike in Ain al-Delb, near Sidon, in southern Lebanon, razed two residential buildings, killing 32 people, the Public Health Ministry said. Many displaced families sheltering on the site were among the victims.
Succession plans
The strikes follow Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a series of air raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut that razed several buildings.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had also killed Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hezbollah politician.
The Iran-linked group has yet to announce succession plans to replace its slain leader – who was seen as a key figure in the group’s previous confrontations against Israel, including the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000.
Hezbollah on Sunday denied media reports of its plans to replace Nasrallah, stressing that any news regarding organizational changes within the group has no value “unless confirmed by an official statement” from the party.
Despite the heavy damage that Israeli assassinations inflicted on Hezbollah’s political and military leadership, the group continued to launch attacks against Israel on Sunday.
Hezbollah announced several military operations against Israeli bases, as well as a rocket attack targeting the town of Safad.
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign against Lebanon on September 23 with the stated aim of pushing Hezbollah out of its borders.
The offensive left hundreds dead and caused considerable damage to villages and towns in Lebanon, particularly in the south of the country.
Displacement crisis
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday that up to a million people had been displaced by the violence and accused Israel of carrying out “daily criminal operations” across the country.
Mikati said about 118,000 displaced people were staying in 778 designated shelters, but the actual number was much higher, with many people staying with friends and relatives or renting their own accommodation.
“A million people moved from one place to another in a matter of days, in the region’s largest displacement crisis,” he said.
When Israel began attacking southern Lebanon earlier this month, it warned people to leave areas where Hezbollah could store weapons, before bombing homes in hundreds of villages in the region, as part of an unprecedented campaign.
Early Saturday, the Israeli military issued specific evacuation orders for large parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs – similar to forced displacement directives used in Gaza over the past year.
This sent thousands of people rushing to reach the city limits of Beirut. Many sleep on the city streets.
Ali Hijazi, Lebanese director of the international charity Lutheran World Relief, said the displaced Lebanese had to leave their homes within minutes with few possessions as they fled for their lives.
“People are really now living in fear and really heading into the unknown,” Hijazi told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“They’re really scared and worried about whether this crisis will last much longer… they’re really in the dark. »
Escalation
Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in daily clashes since the start of the Israeli war against Gaza.
The Lebanese group said it would continue its attacks on Israeli bases in the north of the country until Israel ends its offensive on Gaza.
For months, violence was limited to the border region. But earlier this month, Israel launched an escalatory campaign against Hezbollah.
On September 17 and 18, booby-trapped wireless communications devices associated with Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon, injuring thousands and killing dozens, including civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel for the unprecedented attack.
Days later, an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeting a senior Hezbollah commander killed at least 45 people and injured dozens more.
Today, the fighting increasingly resembles an all-out war. Yemen’s Houthis and Iran-linked Iraqi armed organizations have also fired missiles and drones into Israel to support Hezbollah and Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Israel carried out air raids on ports and power plants in Yemen on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued its offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and destroyed large parts of the territory.
