Lebanese flee homes as Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah intensify

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Thousands of Lebanese are fleeing their homes in the country’s south as Israel intensifies its military campaign against Hezbollah, raising fears of an all-out war a day after a barrage of strikes killed hundreds in the country. In the early hours of Tuesday, the Israeli military launched dozens more airstrikes against Hezbollah after downing projectiles fired from Lebanon.

The attacks followed roughly 1,600 Israeli strikes Monday against Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and militants. The impact of Israel’s strikes on Tuesday wasn’t immediately clear. Hezbollah said it had targeted six Israeli military sites overnight.

Roads were blocked as people fled southern Lebanon, pictures and videos online showed, after the Israeli military broadcast evacuation orders on Monday that it said were designed to move civilians out of harm’s way. The Lebanese minister of health said Monday that thousands had been displaced from the targeted areas. The surge in fighting risks spiraling into an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah after nearly a year of lower-intensity fighting, sparked by the conflict in Gaza.

Monday’s strikes were by far the deadliest day of skirmishes in the current hostilities and one of the worst bouts of bloodshed between Israel and Hezbollah since their monthlong conflict in 2006. In all, the strikes killed almost 500 people, including dozens of women and children, and wounded more than 1,600, according to Lebanese authorities. The Israeli military has said Hezbollah uses civilian infrastructure to launch attacks on Israel and published what it said were pictures of weapons, including long-range missiles, inside homes in Lebanon.