By Patrick Kingsley, Aaron Boxerman and Ronen Bergman
Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon killed at least 356 people and injured more than 1,200 others Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, in the deadliest day of Israeli attacks there since at least 2006, when Israel last fought a war with the Iran-backed militant group.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said that since Monday morning, Israeli fighter jets had struck over 1,300 targets that he said were affiliated with Hezbollah, particularly in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Main roads to Beirut, the capital, were clogged with people fleeing to what they hoped would be the safety of the capital, witnesses said.
As Israeli warplanes raced through Lebanon’s skies, Hezbollah launched its own barrage at Israel. Air-raid sirens rang out repeatedly as about 165 rockets and other munitions crossed into Israeli territory, according to the Israeli military. Most of the attacks were intercepted by Israel’s antimissile defense system, and there were no reports of deaths or serious casualties.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets and drones at Israel since last October in support of its ally, Hamas, prompting Israeli counterattacks. But Israel has ratcheted up its assaults on Hezbollah dramatically over the past week, raising fears that the current fighting could escalate into a full-scale war involving ground troops.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told the Israeli public to expect “complicated days.” Lebanese officials said women and children were among the casualties from the Israeli strikes Monday, but did not say how many of the dead were Hezbollah militants.
On Monday evening, Israel conducted an airstrike in Beirut in an attempt to assassinate Ali Karaki, one of the members of Hezbollah’s top leadership, according to three current and former Israeli officials with knowledge of the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military decisions.
Over the past several months, Israel has assassinated many senior commanders in Hezbollah. On Friday, Israel’s air force killed Ibrahim Akil, another veteran leader, alongside several other senior commanders of the group’s elite commandoes, in a bombing on a residential building in Beirut that killed and wounded dozens.
The strikes Monday were Israel’s latest attempt to break the group’s resolve, after clandestine operations last week that blew up Hezbollah’s wireless devices, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. But so far Israel has failed to force Hezbollah to back down.
The group’s deputy chief on Sunday pledged to continue attacking until Israel ended its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Here’s what else to know:
— Israel’s gamble: Israeli officials had hoped that by scaling up their attacks over the past week, they would unnerve the group and convince it to pull farther back from the Israel-Lebanon border. For now, the opposite has happened: Hezbollah leaders have said they will continue their attacks until a cease-fire is agreed to in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the militia’s ally.
— Evacuation warnings: Israeli officials said Hezbollah was storing thousands of long-range rockets in civilian homes, and people in Lebanon received text messages and automated calls warning them to move away from the group’s weapons caches. The claims drew criticism from human rights groups, which argued that Lebanese civilians would have no reasonable means of knowing how close they were to potential military targets. Ziad Makary, Lebanon’s information minister, called the messages a form of “psychological warfare” by Israel.
— Israel hunkers down: Schools remained shuttered in many parts of northern Israel, including in major cities such as Haifa and Nahariya, as communities braced for repeated rocket fire from Lebanon. The Israeli military ordered wide-ranging restrictions on gatherings across the area over the weekend, saying only businesses close enough to fortified shelters were permitted to open.
— A week of escalation: Exploding pagers, a major Israeli strike in Beirut and Hezbollah attacks deep inside Israel have brought the two sides closer than they’ve been in years to a full-scale war. Analysts say all-out war could be devastating for both countries; the 2006 conflict killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and 150 Israelis.
— Months of attacks: Hezbollah began firing at Israeli troops shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, attempting to show support for its Palestinian ally. Israel responded with missiles and artillery fire, leading to regular exchanges of missiles and rockets, the evacuation of roughly 150,000 people on both sides of the border, and widespread damage in the border areas.
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