Israeli strikes on Lebanon leave at least 182 dead, more than 700 injured

This is the heaviest death toll in Lebanon in nearly a year of violence. The Lebanese Health Ministry announced on Monday, September 23, that 182 people had been killed and more than 700 others injured in intensive Israeli strikes targeting the south of the country. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced “a plan of destruction” of his country. Hospitals were put on alert in the south and east to cope with the influx of wounded, while schools closed for two days in several regions.

The Israeli military claimed to have targeted more than 300 Hezbollah sites. “We are expanding the scope of our strikes against Hezbollah,” she then warned, specifying that she was preparing to carry out new air strikes “of great magnitude” on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. For the first time, Israel advised the population to “move away from targets” Hezbollah in southern and eastern Lebanon, adding that strikes targeting the Islamist movement would become “more important and more precise”Hundreds of Lebanese have begun fleeing the south of the country.

Hezbollah announced on Monday that it had launched rockets at three targets in northern Israel. “In response to the attacks of the Israeli enemy that targeted the southern regions and the Bekaa”Hezbollah said it had “bombed two Israeli military positions as well as the Rafael military industry complexes”For its part, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas denounced a “large-scale barbaric aggression” which constitutes, according to him, “a war crime”.