Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006. More than 1,000 people were wounded in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
The death toll surpassed that of Beirut's devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.
Maginnis: Mossad proves it has good sources and tacticsChad Groening, AFN.net Israel’s intelligence operation is proving to the world it is smart and capable, says a national security expert. Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist group, is still reeling over clever bomb attack by Israel last week that began with pagers and then, hours later, included hand-held radios. In a matter of two days, approximately 3,000 Hezbollah members were injured – some critically – and at least 36 were dead. Bob Maginnis, a national defense analyst, says the strategy was to “break down” the communication capabilities of Hezbollah, and to disrupt what is known in military jargon as command and control. 
“That's the cloak-and-dagger type of operation that intelligence services provide a nation,” Maginnis, referring to Israel’s Mossad, says. Israel’s government has not officially taken credit for the operation and it’s still unknown how the Mossad managed to trigger thousands of pagers and other devices to explode on command. “Obviously, Israel has been doing this for a long time,” Maginnis says. "And they have people well-embedded at the local level, the tactical level, that have allowed them to have this type of success." |
In a recorded message to Lebanese civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying "take this warning seriously."
"Please get out of harm's way now," Netanyahu said. "Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes."
The Israeli military said Monday evening it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported the Beir al-Abed neighborhood in southern Beirut was hit with three missiles. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded. The area was cordoned off and journalists were not allowed access.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.
The Israeli military announced it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes struck residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border north of Beirut.
The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley. The warnings left open the possibility some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing they are at risk.
Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing its "next phases" of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were "proactive," targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said more details would be released in the near future, and that the goal was to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.
As Israel carried out the attacks, Israeli authorities reported a series of air-raid sirens in northern Israel warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.
The evacuation warnings were the first of their kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and 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.
The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of all-out war, even as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of scores of hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.
