AT LEAST 490 people were killed in a day of destruction in Lebanon.
Israel launched a wave of deadly attacks on more than 1,000 Hezbollah targets on Monday after thousands of civilians fled the war-torn border between the two countries.
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Thousands of civilians have fled their homes in southern Lebanon after being warned of impending attacksCredit: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
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Schools closed early and children were picked up early by their parents after Israel warned of impending strikes Credit: AFP
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People enter an art institute in the Lebanese capital Beirut that has been turned into a shelterCredit: AFP
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Volunteers help an elderly man into a makeshift shelter after he ran away from homeCredit: AFP
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Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Marjayoun, near the Lebanese-Israeli border
Bombs were launched in the south by the Israeli military, killing 492 and injuring over 1,600 in precision strikes, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Among the dead are 35 children, the Lebanese government claims.
Hamas field commander Mahmoud Al Nader was also killed, the terror group, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, said.
The death toll – which is expected to rise – marks the deadliest day of conflict in Lebanon since the civil war ended in 1990.
The United Nations said it was “gravely alarmed” by the civilian casualties.
Dramatic footage online showed thousands of civilians fleeing their homes and driving to safety as bombs began to fall on the coastal city of Sidon.
Schools closed early and desperate parents picked up their children before heading beyond the dangerous border.
Those fleeing were told to head towards Beirut, leaving the main road into the capital jammed with cars full of terrified families.
Massive traffic jams quickly built up with roads standing still for miles in several other major cities in southern Lebanon.
Makeshift shelters have been set up in several cities to help house those fleeing the conflict.
Israel hit by a barrage of 100 Hezbollah rockets as all-out war in Lebanon is imminent
The strikes are the latest in a series of “widespread” attacks by the IDF in southern Lebanon as they hunt down Hezbollah chiefs.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, supported the attacks and sharply criticized the Iran-backed militant group, saying “whoever hurts us, we will hurt him even more.”
Despite Israel’s pledge to continue strikes, new reports say officials are willing to enter into negotiations with Hezbollah.
Israel is said to have given the militant group an ultimatum, vowing to “hit them hard” with continued strikes until it agrees to a ceasefire.
An Israeli official reportedly told The Times of Israel: “We will hit them hard, but we will stop if they decide it is time to negotiate.”
The Middle East continues to teeter on the edge of a wider regional conflict with Lebanon’s prime minister accusing Israel of waging a “war of extermination”.
Hezbollah also warned Israel that it would face an “open battle of showdown” on the border.
That prompted the US to deploy additional troops to the Middle East, the Pentagon said.
The US has yet to provide more details on how many troops will be sent or where they will be stationed.
The US currently has around 40,000 troops in the region.
It came after a rocket barrage on Monday that targeted houses in Lebanon that the IDF says are being used by Hezbollah to hide.
The Israeli Air Force hit more than 300 targets by 3 p.m. Monday, the IDF said.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the army was attacking “an infrastructure that Hezbollah has been building for years.”
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A woman sits on a beach in Lebanon as smoke billows from targets hit by Israeli strikesCredit: Reuters/Aziz Taher
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The traffic jam in Sidon continued late into the nightCredit: AFP
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A huge explosion was seen after the IDF launched hundreds of bombsCredit: @sentdefender
Israeli officials said the other main target was senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki, who they believe was in one of the houses.
It is not yet clear what happened to the chief although Hezbollah officials claimed he was alive and had been moved to a safe house.
Israeli officials warned locals of a “major attack” before the bombs fell.
They notified Lebanese civilians via hacked radio broadcasts, text messages and phone calls of the attacks – giving them two hours to escape the Iranian proxy.
Hagari claims that civilians in one part of Lebanon are being used as human shields.
According to local media, the message read: “If you are in a building that houses weapons for Hezbollah, get out of the village until further notice.”
Lebanon’s information minister has hit back at the life-saving warnings by labeling them a “psychological warfare tactic carried out by the enemy”.
A whopping 160,000 Lebanese have fled their homes at the border since the conflict began.
Hezbollah also reportedly killed 26 civilians and 20 soldiers who tried to escape.
Many of these are believed to include 80,000 Israelis who were forced to head south to escape their rockets.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border in parallel with the war Israel waged against Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 atrocity.
Hezbollah has named 497 members of its organization killed by Israel since October, including those killed in last week’s blasts of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon.
The group was said to be “rudderless” and in disarray” after many of its fighters were killed and communications disabled.
The escalation at the border has seen the British military put on alert to launch an emergency evacuation for those trapped in Lebanon, with two ships on standby in the region.
A defense source told The Telegraph that the British government is “ready” to take Britons to safety if the situation worsens.
Foreign Minister David Lammy outlined preparations at an emergency Cobra meeting.
He warned Britons living in Lebanon to leave immediately while “commercial opportunities remain”.
Pager and walkie-talkie strike
The spike in clashes followed a coordinated pager and walkie-talkie last week when Israel sabotaged the communications devices.
The attacks were aimed at Hezbollah and hit the terrorist group’s fighters and civilians in Lebanon and Syria.
At least 39 were killed and thousands were injured in the strikes that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Doctors in Lebanon were overwhelmed with casualties after two waves of explosions – many left blind.
Skilled doctors say they have never had to surgically remove multiple eyes before as the Hezbollah chief labeled the attacks as a possible “declaration of war” by Israel.
One of the injured is the Iranian envoy in the country who allegedly lost an eye.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the group intends to take revenge for attacks that “crossed all red lines” and will not stop until the war in Gaza ends.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said it “condemns the terrorist act of the Zionist regime… as an example of mass murder.”
Israel allegedly planted explosives inside the whistleblowers in a years-long operation involving companies in Taiwan and Hungary.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has ordered all members to stop using all types of communication devices, Reuters reports.
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The explosions caused numerous fires across the southCredit: @sentdefender
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The moment a missile hits a densely populated residential area in LebanonCredit: @sentdefender
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