(Bloomberg) — Israel carried out more air strikes on Hezbollah targets in its heaviest and deadliest bombardment on Lebanon since 2006, when the two sides fought a devastating war.
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Lebanese officials said strikes on Monday killed at least 492 people, including 35 children, and wounded over 1,600. Most of the causalities were in south Lebanon and the Bekaa region in the north-east, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Hezbollah fired its own rocket salvos into northern Israel, claiming to have attacked six different locations on Tuesday morning. Israeli police said parts of projectiles and interceptor missiles fell in several locations in the Galilee region, while some Israelis reported injuries from shrapnel.
Israel says its bombing campaign is necessary to stop almost 12 months of missile and drone attacks from Hezbollah and that diplomatic efforts have failed.
Hezbollah began sending cross-border rocket fire soon after the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza erupted in October, fighting in solidarity with the Islamist organization. The group has said it won’t stop until there’s a cease-fire in the Palestinian territory, a prospect that looks unlikely anytime soon with truce talks deadlocked.
Israel has stepped up its attacks against Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political party, with air strikes causing chaos among civilians in parts of the country. Lebanese authorities are using schools, universities and other government buildings to house thousands of people fleeing the violence. There was heavy traffic on roads Monday from the south to the capital Beirut, which hasn’t yet been the target of a major bombardment.
The Lebanese health ministry urged countries to donate medical aid to help hospitals in the targeted areas that have become overwhelmed. The country has been in economic and political turmoil for around five years and has a caretaker government.
Health Minister Firas Abiad said hospitals have dealt with more than 5,000 people in the past week wounded in the intensifying hostilities. He compared that with 11,000 during the entire 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Monday’s strikes forced aid groups to suspend their work in the Bekaa region and the south.
Israel said it hit around 1,600 Hezbollah targets including rocket launchers, command posts and other infrastructure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objective is to degrade the militant group’s capabilities and force it to move fighters back from the border with Israel.
The government says that’s necessary to enable the return of tens of thousands of displaced civilians to northern Israel. A similar number have fled southern Lebanon.
The latest escalations have stoked concern among the US, European and Arab governments. US officials urged Netanyahu in the past week to avoid more aggressive military action against Hezbollah for fear of triggering a wider war that would draw in Washington and Tehran, the militant group’s main sponsor.
French President Emmanuel Macron sent his special envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to Beirut on Monday. Le Drian met the Lebanese army chief and is scheduled to meet more officials and politicians on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia warned “of the dangers of spreading violence across the region.”
Iran suggested it wants to ease tensions. “We’re willing to put all our weapons aside so long as Israel is willing to do the same,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in New York, where he’s attending this week’s United Nations General Assembly.
Netanyahu accuses Iran of continuing to arm and fund Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli groups across the Middle East. He’s scheduled to speak at the UN later this week. though his arrival in New York has been delayed because of the hostilities with Hezbollah.
Hamas and Hezbollah are designated by the US as terrorist groups. The latter is more ideologically linked to the Islamic Republic and is seen as the most powerful non-state actor in the Middle East.
The Israeli strikes came days after an attack in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded. Hezbollah and Iran said Israel was to blame. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was responsible.
Ground Invasion
One Israeli military official said the country is focused on an aerial campaign and suggested it wouldn’t also need a ground offensive to force Hezbollah back from the border.
Still, a senior US official said it’s important to take seriously Israel’s preparations for an invasion and that the US is focused on breaking the escalatory cycle.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, several times in recent days, stressing the need for a diplomatic solution.
The US will send a “small number” of additional troops to the Middle East, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said without elaborating.
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