At least 492 killed and more than 1,200 injured as Israel launches deadly strikes on Lebanon
23 September 2024, 20:29 | Updated: 24 September 2024, 05:07
At least 492 people have been killed and more than 1,200 injured after Israel launched a series of deadly strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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Hundreds were killed on Monday - including at least 24 children and 42 women - in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
It came after the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
Thousands fled the south, with the main highway out of the port city of Sidon left jammed with cars heading toward Beirut.
Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki was the target of the strikes, a security source told Reuters.
But in an update on Monday evening, the Iranian-backed group said that he is "fine and, God willing, in full health and wellness and has moved to a safe place".
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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is facing "complicated days" as he called on Israelis to remain united.
"I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north - that is exactly what we are doing," he said.
The Israeli military said that it had hit 800 Hezbollah targets in just hours, including a Russian-made DR-3 missile which it claimed had been ready to fire across the border.
Residents in Beirut received text messages warning them to stay clear of the targets, which Lebanon's information minister said was a tactic of "psychological war implemented by the enemy".
Lebanon's PM accused Israel of waging "a war of extermination". He called for the UN to step in "to deter the [Israeli] aggression".
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The US later announced that it had sent additional troops to the Middle East as tensions continue to grow.
However, it has not been confirmed how many additional forces have been sent or what they will be tasked to do.
The aircraft carrier USS Truman, two destroyers and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, headed to the Mediterranean on a regularly scheduled deployment on Monday, opening the possibility that the US could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Gulf of Oman, nearby in case further violence breaks out.
"In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional US military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region," Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said.
"But for operational security reasons, I'm not going to comment on or provide specifics."
Meanwhile, Iran's president has accused Israel of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying "traps" to lead his country into a wider conflict.
Masoud Pezeshkian said that Iran does not want to see the current war in Gaza and airstrikes across the Israeli-Lebanon border expanded.
He said while Israel insists it does not want a wider war, it is taking actions that show otherwise.
Mr Pezeshkian pointed to the deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, as well as the assassination of Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on the eve of his inauguration.
"They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go," the Iranian leader said.
"There is no winner in warfare. We are only fooling ourselves if we believe that."
