“I have a message for the people of Lebanon, Israel’s war is not with you its with Hezbollah,” he said in a video message after Israel’s military pounded over 1,300 targets in the country’s north and south.
“Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm’s way now,” he said, telling civilians they can return to their homes “once our operation has finished”.
Israeli air strikes killed 274 people, including 21 children, and wounded at least 1,000 across Lebanon, its health ministry said.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israel had targeted Ali Karaki, the group’s southern front commander, in a strike on the capital of Beirut. It is not yet clear if he was killed.
The Pentagon said they were sending additional troops to the Middle East in response to the escalation in violence. It already has some 40,000 soldiers in the region.
Hezbollah says top commander was not killed in Israeli strike
Hezbollah has denied claims that one of its top commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday.
“In response to the zionist enemy’s claims of assassinating our brother, the fighter Ali Karaki, we confirm that our dear brother, the fighter leader, Hajj Ali Karaki, is fine and, God willing, in full health and wellness and has moved to a safe place,” the terror-group said.
Israeli media had earlier reported that Karaki was the target of an Israeli air strike on the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut.
Karaki is the head of the Hezbollah unit responsible for the group’s activity in southern Lebanon. He also a member of the Jihad Council, the body responsible for directing Hezbollah’s military activities.
350 killed, including 24 children, Lebanese says
Lebanon said more than 350 people including 24 children had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s east and south Monday - the deadliest day in nearly a year of cross-border clashes.
“Israeli enemy strikes on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Baalbek” in the east, “killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and injured 1,246” others, the health ministry said in a statement.
IDF says its airstrikes hit 1,300 targets in 24 hours
The Israeli military said late Monday that air strikes in Lebanon hit more than 1,300 targets of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in the previous 24 hours.
The strikes hit “over 1,300 targets”, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing.
An earlier statement from the Israeli army specified that the targets included “buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure where rockets, missiles, launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles posed a threat”.
Hezbollah says top commander was not killed in Israeli strike
Hezbollah has denied claims that one of its top commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday.
“In response to the zionist enemy’s claims of assassinating our brother, the fighter Ali Karaki, we confirm that our dear brother, the fighter leader, Hajj Ali Karaki, is fine and, God willing, in full health and wellness and has moved to a safe place,” the terror-group said.
Israeli media had earlier reported that Karaki was the target of an Israeli air strike on the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut.
Karaki is the head of the Hezbollah unit responsible for the group’s activity in southern Lebanon. He also a member of the Jihad Council, the body responsible for directing Hezbollah’s military activities.
350 killed, including 24 children, Lebanese says
Lebanon said more than 350 people including 24 children had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s east and south Monday - the deadliest day in nearly a year of cross-border clashes.
“Israeli enemy strikes on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Baalbek” in the east, “killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and injured 1,246” others, the health ministry said in a statement.
IDF says its airstrikes hit 1,300 targets in 24 hours
The Israeli military said late Monday that air strikes in Lebanon hit more than 1,300 targets of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in the previous 24 hours.
The strikes hit “over 1,300 targets”, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing.
An earlier statement from the Israeli army specified that the targets included “buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure where rockets, missiles, launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles posed a threat”.
Pictured: Israel intercepts Hezbollah rockets
Iran’s president: ‘Israel is laying traps to lead us into war’
Iran’s president accused Israel on Monday of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying “traps” to lead his country into a wider conflict.
Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran doesn’t want to see the current war in Gaza and airstrikes across the Israeli-Lebanon border expanded.
He said while Israel insists it doesn’t want a wider war, it is taking actions that show otherwise.
“They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go...There is no winner in warfare,” he said. “We are only fooling ourselves” if we believe that.
Other countries react to the escalation in violence
Egypt has urged the UN Security Council to intervene after what it called a “dangerous Israeli escalation” in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Turkey said Israel’s strikes on Lebanon threaten to “drag entire region into chaos”.
Iraq’s
prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, is seeking an “urgent” Arab
meeting at UN General Assembly over the escalation in fighting.