In the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel’s widespread strikes on Lebanon killed over 490 people, including women and children, and wounded over 1,600 people, Lebanese authorities said on Sep 23.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying "take this warning seriously."
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Sep 23 also warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
Lebanon's health ministry said unprecedented strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women while leaving 1,600 people wounded — a staggering one-day toll for a country struggling to deal with a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
In his recorded message Netanyahu said, "Please get out of harm's way now," adding, "Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes." Israel's military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the army will do "whatever is necessary" to push Hezbollah from Lebanon's border with Israel.
Hagari claimed the Sep 23 airstrikes inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah but did not give a timeline for the ongoing operation. He said Israel was prepared to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon if needed.
"We are not looking for wars. We are looking to take down the threats," he was quoted as saying. "We will do whatever is necessary to do to achieve this mission."
Hagari said Hezbollah has launched at least 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since October last year, including around 250 on Sep 23. The Israel military said their warplanes struck around 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Sep 23, destroying cruise missiles, long and short-range rockets, and attack drones.
Hagari showed photos of what he claimed weapons concealed in private homes and in residential areas.
"Hezbollah has turned southern Lebanon into a war zone," Hagari told reporters.
Israel claimed Hezbollah has at least 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range projectiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported three missiles hit southern Beirut's Beir al-Abed neighborhood.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad was quoted as saying the recent strikes hit hospitals, medical centers, and ambulances.
The government on Sep 23 ordered schools and universities to shut down across most of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.
The Lebanese Health Ministry asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone non-urgent surgeries to treat people wounded by "Israel's expanding aggression on Lebanon."
On Sep 23, residents received text messages reading, "If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice," Lebanese media reported.
Lebanon's Information Minister, Ziad Makary on Sep 23 said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.
"This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy," Makary said, urging people "not to give the matter more attention than it deserves."
Communities on both sides of the border have largely evacuated because of the almost daily exchanges of fire.
Israel 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.
Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Sep 23 said Israel was preparing its "next phases" of operations against Hezbollah, and its airstrikes were intended at targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said the goal was to facilitate the return of displaced Israelis to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah in a statement said it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, mostly at military bases. It also targeted for a second day, the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa, it added.
Pertinently, 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 on Sep 22. 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 — a fellow Iran-backed militant group — in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of dozens of people taken hostage in Hamas' Oct 7 attack.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with Hamas. The United States and the United Nations have expressed concern about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and insisted that getting a ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza was key to easing tensions in the region.
"It's in everyone's interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters while traveling with Biden to New York. Biden will deliver his final address to the UN General Assembly on Sep 24.
Meanwhile, UN peacekeepers in southern Leban near the Israeli border have stopped their patrols and are staying in their bases "given the volume of exchange of fire," a UN spokesman said.
Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Sep 23 that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "alarmed" at the escalating violence and large number of civilian casualties reported in Lebanon.
Notably, the death toll on Sep 23 far 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 over 6,000.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of transforming entire communities in the south into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure which could lead the Israeli military to wage a bombing campaign, even if no ground forces move in.
An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Sep 20 killed a top Hezbollah military commander and over a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.
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 whom were civilians.
Lebanon blamed Israel for the attacks, but Israel did not confirm or deny the responsibility.
Notably, Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the Oct 7 attack last year in what it said was an attempt to constrain Israeli forces and help Palestinian fighters in Gaza.
Israel has retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily intensified over the past year. Israel's offensive has till now killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, adding, “Women and children make up almost half of those killed.” Israel on the other hand claims it has killed over 17,000 militants in retaliatory actions.
