Death toll from Israel’s strikes on Lebanon climbs to 492, deadliest day since civil war

It is the deadliest day of conflict in Lebanon since its 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanon’s media outlets reported the Israeli aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources stated that Israeli fighter jets had pounded a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

Videos and photos show large queues of traffic as people flee towns across the country for the capital, Beirut.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari has stated the regime “will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would “go on for the near future”. Tel Aviv recently declared that it was shifting more focus to the fighting with Hezbollah in a bid to allow the 60,000 or so Israelis evacuated from the border areas to return.

Tel Aviv has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

Israel’s shift of focus was initiated in a wave of unprecedented attacks. On Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of pagers and other devices exploded in Beirut targeting Hezbollah’s rank and file members, as well as civilians, sending shockwaves across the country.

At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded in the blasts. These were widely blamed on Israel which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

On Friday, an Israeli strike killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, and the second-in-command of the group’s armed force Ibrahim Aqil. The strike in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh killed at least 45 people, including 10 civilians.