Tens of thousands of people fled southern Lebanon as Israel vowed Tuesday to “accelerate” an air offensive that has already inflicted the country’s deadliest day since the war nearly two decades ago.
The Israeli military said it would operate at “full force” as the death toll in Lebanon passed 500 and Hezbollah launched a new round of cross-border fire, an escalating exchange between the U.S. ally and the Iran-backed militant group that has stoked growing fears of an all-out regional conflict.
Washington was preparing to send troops to help evacuate Americans, while dozens of international flights were canceled.
The sudden escalation of violence has caused traffic jams on the streets of southern Lebanon, where residents have abandoned their homes and loaded their vehicles with the few belongings they could salvage after Israel ordered many people to leave and launched a wave of attacks. Tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in the area by Tuesday, according to the UN refugee agency.
Nearly 500 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday, according to local health officials, marking the deadliest Israeli bombardment of the country since Israel’s 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006. As of Tuesday, the death toll stood at at least 558, including at least 50 children and 94 women, and at least 1,835 people injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israel has dramatically increased its airstrikes following its stunning attacks on Hezbollah communications devices, which followed nearly a year of escalating hostilities with the group that have displaced thousands of people on both sides of the border.
“We struggled a lot on the road to get here,” said Ali Hassan, a displaced person from Tyre, one of Lebanon’s largest cities on the Mediterranean coast. “Some of my relatives and my wife’s brothers slept on the streets because they haven’t found shelter yet, and the schools are now full,” he told The Associated Press.
Scenes of families fleeing as violent explosions filled the horizon fueled global fears of a wider regional conflict.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that the situation in Lebanon was “extremely dangerous and worrying”.
“I can say that we are almost in a real war,” he told reporters on Monday, according to Reuters. “If this is not a war situation, I don’t know what else you could call it.”
Israeli bombardments continued Tuesday, with the Israel Defense Forces saying they struck dozens of Hezbollah targets overnight and continued to launch attacks in what they dubbed “Operation Northern Arrows.”
The Israeli military said it struck a number of towns it believed belonged to Hezbollah in waves of strikes early Tuesday.
The military said later Tuesday that it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, and more details will be released later.
Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said Tuesday that the army would continue to operate “at full strength.”
“We must not give Hezbollah any respite,” he said in a morning assessment, according to the Israeli military. “We will accelerate offensive actions today and strengthen all systems. The situation requires intense and continuous action on all fronts.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Hezbollah continued to launch rockets toward northern Israel, with the militant group vowing to continue its campaign until Israel ends its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
More than 40,300 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave, according to local health officials, in Israel’s deadly campaign following the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, in which Israeli officials said about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.
Israel has vowed to continue its attacks in Lebanon, saying it is necessary to ensure the safe return of Israelis to their homes in the north of the country.
But the United States does not support its ally’s stated strategy of escalation aimed at de-escalating its conflict with Hezbollah, a senior State Department official told NBC News on Monday.
“I don’t recall, at least in recent memory, a period in which an escalation or intensification led to a fundamental de-escalation and a profound stabilization of the situation,” the senior official said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to work to find a way to de-escalate the situation at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week with like-minded partners, including at a dinner with his Group of Seven counterparts tonight, the official said.
Asked whether the United States believed Israel was moving toward a possible ground invasion of Lebanon, the official said it was “important to take Israeli preparations seriously” and stressed that the United States did not believe such a move would reduce violence in the region.
