Israel launched ground attacks against Hezbollah targets in the border region of southern Lebanon, slaying over 90 people and raising worries about regional escalation. Ninety-five people were killed, and 172 others wounded over the past 24 hours in Israeli airstrikes on different locations in Lebanon, expressed the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The ministry conveyed that 16 people were killed and 48 wounded in the Baalbek-Hermel district, while another 16 were eradicated and 55 wounded in the Nabatieh governorate. Additionally, four casualties and four injuries were documented in Beirut, along with 52 fatalities and 43 wounds in the southern governorate. The Bekaa region witnessed seven people killed and 22 wounded. Israel’s military ratified that it had undertaken “a focused and limited” ground movement against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The procedure, involving ground forces, aircraft and artillery regiments, targeted sites in southern Lebanon, while warplanes attacked Beirut’s southern suburb, Israel’s military expressed. The ground attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon come amid heightened uncertainty in the region, with Israel throwing attacks in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria as part of its alleged “self-defence” strategy. Besides the ground attacks, the Israeli forces carried out an aerial raid on the Syrian capital Damascus, with three civilians perished and nine others being injured, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.
Syria’s state media verified that Syrian air defences were reacting to an Israeli attack in the vicinity of Damascus. The Israeli military declared that the offensive in the Gaza Strip would also move. At least 12 people were extinguished, and several others wounded in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Nuseirat base in the central Gaza Strip, medical sources and eyewitnesses expressed.
An inflow of both Lebanese citizens and displaced Syrians was travelling into Syria following Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The UN Refugee Agency stated that 100,000 people have fled Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon to Syria, mostly Lebanese and Syrian nationals.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced concern about the humanitarian impact on civilians. His chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric stated that the secretary-general remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian effects of the events that are unfolding in Lebanon.
“He continues to reiterate his call for de-escalation, a cessation of hostilities.”
The UN peacekeepers watching the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon understood as UNIFIL, remain in position.
However, the spokesman said that while the peacekeepers remain in their area of responsibility, the intensity of fighting prevents their movements and ability to undertake mandated tasks, such as going out on patrols.
