The UN denounces “a real escalation”The Israeli army said on Monday, September 23, that it had targeted 800 Hezbollah sites in massive strikes that left at least 274 dead, including 21 children, according to a toll revised upwards late in the afternoon by the Lebanese government. “In less than a week”nearly 5,000 people have been injured in various attacks, including the explosions of Hezbollah beepers and walkie-talkies, according to the Health Ministry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was reversing the “balance of power” in the north of the Hebrew state, on the border with Lebanon. Follow our live stream.
Israeli Prime Minister calls on Lebanese to evacuate. The strikes targeting Hezbollah will “continue in the near future” and will be “more important and more precise”the Israeli army warned on Monday afternoon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recommended that Lebanese citizens “move away from dangerous areas”at a time when Israel is pounding targets of the Islamist movement Hezbollah in the south and east of neighboring Lebanon. “Once our operation is complete, you will be able to return home safely.”he said in English in a video.
Beirut denounces “a war of extermination”. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati deplored the “Israeli aggression”which is, according to him, “a war of extermination in every respect, a plan of destruction aimed at annihilating Lebanese villages and towns.” The government has decreed “the closure of public and private schools” Monday and Tuesday in the south and east of Lebanon, targeted during the night, as well as in the southern suburbs of Beirut, targeted on Friday by a deadly raid.
Hezbollah announces a timid response. “In response to the attacks of the Israeli enemy that targeted the southern regions and the Bekaa”the Islamist movement claimed to have “bombed two Israeli military positions as well as the Rafael military industry complexes” in northern Israel. “This barbaric large-scale aggression is a war crime”added the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, stressing its “solidarity” with his “Hezbollah brothers and the brotherly Lebanese people”.
Deadly exchanges of fire since Sunday. After waves of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies last week, killing nearly 40 people and injuring 3,000, the exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah has intensified in recent days. The Israeli army struck “several dozen” Hezbollah positions in Lebanon on Sunday response to “nearly 150 rockets, cruise missiles and drones launched towards Israel” on the night from Saturday to Sunday and Sunday morning.