BEIRUT (AP) — Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an “open war” with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The development came after Hezbollah fired rockets and launched drones early Monday toward northern Israel. Israel retaliated with a wave of airstrikes that killed 50 people in Lebanon, including seven children as well as a Palestinian militant and a Hezbollah intelligence official in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
That death toll is a revised figure from an earlier one reported by the Health Ministry, which originally said Monday that 52 people died in the strikes. Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine then on Tuesday reduced that number to 40, then later raised the toll to 50. Lebanon also said 335 people were wounded and that tens of thousands were displaced. The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that 30,000 displaced people were staying in collective shelters in Lebanon, “while many others slept in their cars, on sides of the roads as they could not yet find safe shelter.”
Hezbollah fired two salvos of rockets toward northern Israel, the militant group said while Israeli airstrikes overnight damaged a building housing Hezbollah’s television and radio stations. Beirut’s southern suburbs also saw a series of strikes on Tuesday afternoon that came without warning. The Israeli military later said it targeted Hezbollah officials.
The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, warned residents of more than 80 villages and towns in southern Lebanon to leave, adding that people should not return to these areas until further notice. A senior Hezbollah official said that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon, the group’s patience has ended, leaving it with no option but to fight Israel. “The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Mohamoud Komati said. “So let it be an open war,” added the Hezbollah official. (Read More)
