Israel and Hezbollah renew fire after the deadliest day in Lebanon since
2006
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[September 24, 2024]
By ABBY SEWELL
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes again Tuesday as the
death toll from a massive Israeli bombardment climbed to nearly 560
people and thousands fled from southern Lebanon with the two sides on
the brink of all-out war.
Displaced families slept in shelters hastily set up in schools in Beirut
and the coastal city of Sidon. With hotels quickly booked to capacity or
rooms priced beyond the means of many families, those who did not find
shelter slept in their cars, in parks or along the seaside.
Issa Baydoun fled the village of Shihine in southern Lebanon when it
came under bombing and came to Beirut in a convoy of cars with his
extended family. They slept in the vehicles on the side of the road
after discovering that the shelters were full.
“We struggled a lot on the road just to get here,” he said.
Baydoun rejected Israel’s contention that it hit only military targets.
“We evacuated our homes because Israel is targeting civilians and
attacking them,” he said. “That’s why we left our homes, to protect our
children.”
Well-wishers offered up empty apartments or rooms in their houses in
social media posts, while volunteers set up a kitchen at an empty gas
station in Beirut to cook meals for the displaced.
In the eastern city of Baalbek, the state-run National News Agency
reported that lines formed at bakeries and gas stations as residents
rushed to stock up on essential supplies in anticipation of another
round of strikes on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the border crossing with Syria saw massive traffic jams as a
result of people escaping from Lebanon to the neighboring country.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched missiles
overnight at eight sites in Israel, including an explosives factory in
Zichron, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border.
The Israeli military said Tuesday morning that 55 rockets were fired
from Lebanon into northern Israel, setting fires and damaging buildings.
Military officials said they carried out dozens of airstrikes on
Hezbollah targets, including on a cell that fired rockets overnight, and
that tanks and artillery struck targets near the border.
Galilee Medical Center, a northern Israel hospital, said that two
patients arrived with minor head injuries from a rocket falling near
their car. Several others were being treated for light wounds from
running to shelters and traffic accidents when alarms sounded.
The renewed exchange came after Monday's barrages racked up the highest
death toll in any single day in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah
fought a bruising monthlong war in 2006.
Israel said it targeted sites where Hezbollah had stored weapons. Data
from American fire-tracking satellites analyzed Tuesday by The
Associated Press showed the wide range of Israeli airstrikes aimed at
southern Lebanon, covering an area of over 1,700 square kilometers (650
square miles).
NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System typically is used
to track wildfires across rural areas of the U.S. However, it can also
be used to track the flashes and burning that follow airstrikes. That’s
particularly true when an airstrike ignites flammable material on the
ground, such as munitions or fuel.
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Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that
were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 23,
2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Data from Monday showed significant fires breaking out across
southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley. Several areas showed
intense, multiple fires, including near the southern coastal town of
Naqoura, which hosts a base for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in
southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL. Others were in mountainous rural
areas or villages.
The sides appear on the verge of war again after tensions have
steadily escalated over the last 11 months. Hezbollah has been
firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in
solidarity with the Palestinians and its ally Hamas, a fellow
Iran-backed militant group, in Gaza.
Israel has responded with increasingly heavy airstrikes and the
targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a wider
operation.
Thousands of Lebanese fled the southern part of the country on
Monday after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate areas
where it accuses Hezbollah of positioning rocket launchers and other
weapons, in the biggest exodus since the monthlong war waged 18
years ago.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said the strikes since Monday killed at
least 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women, and wounded
more than 1,800 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country
still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last
week.
Nearly a year of cross-border fire had already emptied out
communities near the border, displacing tens of thousands of people
on both sides. Israel has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure
its citizens can return to their homes in the north, while Hezbollah
has said it will keep up its rocket attacks until there is a
cease-fire in Gaza, which appears increasingly remote.
The Israeli military says it has no immediate plans for a ground
invasion but is prepared for one, after moving thousands of troops
who had been serving in Gaza to the northern border. It says
Hezbollah has launched some 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel
since last October, including 250 on Monday alone.
The military said Israeli warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets
Monday, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets
and attack drones, including weapons concealed in private homes.
Lebanese officials have said many of the victims were civilians,
including more than 90 women and children killed.
Israel estimates Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles,
including guided missiles and long-range projectiles capable of
striking anywhere in Israel.
Monday's escalation came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire
Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones
into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed a top
commander and dozens of fighters.
Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by
Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing
39 people and wounding nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon
blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.
___
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Bassem Mroue and
Fadi Tawil in Beirut and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to
this report.
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