Israel attacked Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and an Iran-backed group attacked military bases in northern Israel on Tuesday, raising fears of a full-scale conflict after Lebanon suffered its worst day of attacks in decades.
Israel’s military said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets overnight, a day after a Hezbollah airstrike. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said at least 558 people died in Monday’s strikes, including 50 children and 94 women, and 1,835 were injured.
“In the last hour, warplanes bombarded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including missile launchers, military buildings, and buildings where weapons were stored,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee told X.
Beirut was spared for the second straight day. The Israeli airstrikes targeted a Hezbollah commander in the southern part of the capital, two Lebanese security sources said. The sources refused to reveal who was involved in the strike and said it is not known when it will end.
Israel’s military said it carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, but did not provide details.
The airstrikes hit a building in the usually busy Ghobeiry area. One of the security sources shared a photo showing the damage on the top floor of the five-story building.
Hezbollah said it targeted several Israeli military targets overnight, including an explosives factory 60 kilometers to Israel, which it attacked with rockets in Fadi at around 4 am local time. It said it also attacked Megiddo airport near the northern Israeli city of Afula on separate occasions.
After nearly a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel has shifted its focus to the northern border, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.
The people of Nahariya, in northwestern Israel, spoke on Tuesday about how it feels to live in the area as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates.
‘Very scary’
Some hospitals in Lebanon are overwhelmed by the number of casualties, the head of the World Health Organization in Lebanon said, while Haifa’s main hospital has moved operations underground after the attack on the Israeli city on Monday.
“We are looking at tens of thousands [of displaced in Lebanon]but we expect those numbers to start to rise,” said the spokesman for the UN refugee agency, Matthew Saltmarsh. “The situation is very alarming.”
The war has raised fears that the United States, a close ally of Israel, and regional power Iran, which has members in the Middle East – Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq – will enter a wider war.
Maj.-Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said that “a small number of US troops will be sent” to the region, where there are currently about 40,000 US troops stationed at various bases. The Pentagon declined to specify the exact number or mission of the troops deployed.
Calls for an immediate truce between Israel and Hezbollah are growing louder after airstrikes killed hundreds of people in Lebanon on Monday. The US is sending more troops to the Middle East, strengthening its presence in the region.
The strikes piled pressure on Hezbollah, which last week suffered a heavy loss when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded in the worst security breach in its history.
The project is said to be carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Israel’s intelligence and technological prowess have given it a strong edge in Lebanon and Gaza. It tracked down and killed top Hezbollah commanders and Hamas leaders.
The G7 is concerned about regional war
The Israeli military said about 55 projectiles fell on Israel in the latest attack, but most were intercepted and a few explosives were found to have fallen in the Upper Galilee region.
“Damage was caused to buildings in the area,” it said, adding that some projectiles were intercepted in the HaAmakim area and others fell in open areas.
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae tells Power & Politics that the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a ‘very disturbing situation.’
Hezbollah said it bombed the warehouses of the 146th Division in the Naftali area with a rocket salvo.
The G7 foreign ministers, including Mr. MĂ©lanie Joly of Canada, said that the Middle East is at risk of being drawn into a wider conflict that will not benefit the country, according to a joint statement issued after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Endless war could create more instability in the Middle East than the devastating war in Gaza, which shows no sign of abating.
Both Canada and the US have advised their citizens in Lebanon to leave while trade options are still available. Joly estimated last week that there were about 45,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is likely to be Israel’s most formidable adversary on the ground than Hamas. Created in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to counter the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it is more experienced, more disciplined and better armed than its Palestinian counterparts.
But Israel’s government is facing public pressure to secure its northern border and bring back thousands of residents there – the most important part of the war.
Families from southern Lebanon on Monday loaded cars, vans and trucks with goods and people young and old. The main roads to the north were closed.
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