Lebanese Health Ministry counts 50 dead in Israeli strikes

 

“Israeli strikes on localities and villages in the south have left, according to an initial toll, 50 dead and over 300 wounded,” including children, women and rescue workers, the ministry said in a statement.

 

Earlier, the Lebanese Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi, announced that schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday due to “the military and security situation” in the areas targeted by the Israeli strikes, i.e. the south and east of the country, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. 

 

On Monday, Israel boasted that it had carried out 150 strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The country issued warnings to the population in anticipation of “more extensive” bombardments, despite calls for restraint from the international community. These were the most intense strikes targeting Hezbollah since the start of the war.

 

In retaliation, Hezbollah announced on Monday that it had fired rockets at three targets in northern Israel. “In response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on the southern and Bekaa regions, Hezbollah fighters “bombed two Israeli military positions and the Rafael military industry complexes”, the movement said in a statement.

 

The powerful Lebanese armed movement is an ally of the Palestinian Hamas and is supported by Iran, Israel's sworn enemy. After almost a year of war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, the front has shifted to northern Israel and the border with Lebanon.