Israelis have launched massive airstrikes on residential towns in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing at least 492 people and injuring at least 1, 645 others.
At least 35 children, 58 women and two emergency responders were killed in the Sept. 23 attack, Lebanon's health minister said. Security sources told news outlet Middle East Eye that among the victims of the attack on southern Beirut was the head of Hezbollah's southern command, Ali Karaki. The militant group announced later on that Karaki was alive and had been relocated to a safer place.
Amid the chaos, tens of thousands of Lebanese people were forced to move north for safety. Israel warned people to evacuate areas where it said the armed movement was storing weapons.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a short video statement addressed to the public. "Israel's war is not with you, it's with Hezbollah. For too long Hezbollah has been using you as human shields," he claimed.
Over the weekend, an Israeli minister called for the "Shia enemy population" of Lebanon to be kept away from the border of Israel, as his country's military steps up its attacks on its northern neighbor. Writing on X, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said a buffer zone should be created in southern Lebanon. He said that "even though it has a flag and even though it has political institutions," Lebanon "does not meet the definition of a country."
"A renewed buffer zone, free of enemy population is the order of the hour and it is the right and most just thing to do both from a security point of view, both from a political and moral point of view," he added. (Related: UN investigator accuses Israel of "deliberately starving" Palestinians in Gaza; Netanyahu denies allegation.)
Netanyahu says "complicated" days are coming as he seeks to "change the balance of power"
In further response to the attacks, Netanyahu warned that there would be "complicated" days ahead and that he sought to "change the balance of power."
"Israel knows that if it infiltrates Lebanon, the Lebanese army and Hezbollah will have military superiority on the ground," one source told Middle East Eye. "If the Israeli army carries out a ground invasion, the Lebanese army will participate with Hezbollah in confronting and defending."
Meanwhile, as Israel targeted locations across the south, including the outskirts of major cities like Tyre, residents of Beirut and southern Lebanon told the media site that they were called on their phones and ordered to move one kilometer away from alleged Hezbollah sites.
Some residents also received calls and text messages in Beirut from a Lebanese number ordering them to leave immediately. Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary described the orders as "a psychological war."
More than 80,000 call attempts to Lebanese people telling them to flee their homes were made, according to the head of the telecoms company Ogero.
"We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon," said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. When asked about a possible ground invasion, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: "We will do whatever is needed."
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