Israel launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing 492 people and sending tens of thousands fleeing for safety in Lebanon’s deadliest day in decades, according to authorities.
After some of the heaviest cross-border exchanges of fire since hostilities flared in October, Israel warned people in Lebanon to evacuate areas where it said the armed movement was storing weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a short video statement addressed to the Lebanese people.
“Israel’s war is not with you, it’s with Hezbollah. For too long Hezbollah has been using you as human shields,” he said.
Families from south Lebanon loaded cars, vans and trucks with belongings and people, sometimes multiple generations in one vehicle. As bombs rained down, children crammed onto parents’ laps and suitcases were tied to car roofs.
Highways north were gridlocked. “I grabbed all the important papers and we got out. Strikes all around us. It was terrifying,” said Abed Afou who was with his family, including three sons aged 6 to 13 and several other relatives. They sat in traffic as it crawled north.
They did not know where they would stay, he said, but just wanted to reach Beirut.
Some people escaped on foot. People carrying small bundles of belongings trekked northward on the beach near the Lebanese town of Tyre.
READ ALSO: IDF urges Southern Lebanon residents to evacuate amid escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict
Nasser Yassin, the Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters 89 temporary shelters in schools and other facilities had been activated, with capacity for more than 26,000 people as civilians fled “Israeli atrocities”.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, also backed by Iran.
Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, east and north.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed, including 35 children, and 1,645 wounded.
One Lebanese official said it was Lebanon’s highest daily death toll from violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday marked a “significant peak” in the nearly year-long conflict.
“On this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a period of 20 years since the second Lebanon War is in fact being destroyed by the IDF,” he said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Saudi Arabia expressed deep concern on Monday and urged all parties to exercise restraint, state news agency SPA reported.
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