Israeli strikes in south Lebanon kill 100 as conflict spirals

Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon killed at least 100 people, local authorities said, as escalating hostilities between the two sides stoke international concern about the scale of conflict.

The attacks injured about 400 others including women and children, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. Israeli medics said eight people were wounded in northern Israel as a result of Hezbollah’s counter assaults.

Israel targeted several southern towns on Monday including Tyre and Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, while Jbeil in the north reported its first missile hit — some 170 kilometers (106 miles) from the border. The Israeli military said it would next launch an extensive wave of air strikes on the eastern region of Bekaa.

The two sides have been exchanging cross-border rocket fire almost daily since Israel’s war with Hamas erupted last October, but the conflict has stepped up a level in the past week. The U.S. is urging restraint and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken to Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant several times in recent days, stressing “the importance of achieving a diplomatic solution,” the Pentagon said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he shares that objective, but such efforts have failed to stop Hezbollah’s attacks. His cabinet has made the return of tens of thousands of displaced civilians a primary war objective, while Gallant has indicated a shift of focus north from the battlegrounds of Gaza.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly at its summit in New York this week, though his travel itinerary hasn’t yet been published.

Bomb shelters

In northern Israel, hundreds of thousands of people rushed to bomb shelters on Monday after 150 projectiles were fired. Hezbollah has access to a new type of rocket that can reach as far as 100 kilometers and carry 170 kilograms of explosives in its warhead, the group said on its Telegram channel over the weekend.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli army sites north of Haifa as sirens sounded, including in civilian areas. Israeli police reported a house being hit and rockets falling in several locations in the Lower Galilee.

Israel is looking to destroy Hezbollah’s launchers, missiles and rockets to degrade the Iran-backed group’s military capabilities and is focusing on an aerial campaign for now, an Israeli military official said, indicating a ground invasion isn’t imminent. The person asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information.

The Israeli army said it has so far hit more than 300 Hezbollah targets, marking the heaviest raids since 2006 when the two sides fought a devastating 34-day war. It’s yet to start a more intensive bombing campaign on Beirut, a potentially significant escalation likely to cause extensive civilian casualties.

The escalation in fighting, which until last week remained within the so-called rules of engagement, came after Hezbollah and Lebanon blamed Israel for blowing up thousands of pagers and walkie talkies, mostly used by members of the group, in a two-day operation in Lebanon that killed at least 39 people, including civilians and children, and injured thousands.

On Friday, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in an air strike on a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the group has a strong presence.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the U.N. and others countries to stop what he called the possibility of “falling into the unknown.”

Civilians in the south of Lebanon should “immediately move out of harm’s way,” a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, Daniel Hagari, said in a briefing on Monday.

Residents of some villages reported they received phone calls urging them to leave their homes. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziyad Makari received a similar call to evacuate the building he was in.

South Lebanon residents started to flee the area, with heavy traffic reported in Beirut on the highway leading to the capital.

Sinwar whereabouts

Hagari said it’s possible Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has been wounded or killed in air strikes on Gaza, after local media reported he has recently been incommunicado.

“Regarding what has surfaced over the last day about Sinwar, I do not rule it out nor do I confirm it,” he said.

The Israeli government says Sinwar masterminded the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Last month, he was promoted to succeed the group’s political head, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran, and is now the point-man for long-running truce talks mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt.

Hezbollah started firing on Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas. Both groups are backed by Iran and designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S.

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(With assistance from Galit Altstein, Alisa Odenheimer and Omar Tamo.)