Israel said Tuesday it was stepping up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, after two days of airstrikes on the Shiite Hezbollah militia have pushed the death toll above 550 and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
The dead include Hezbollah’s missile commander and two UN aid agency workers.
“We cannot let Hezbollah rest. We must continue with all our strength,” Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said, according to military sources.
The strikes will be intensified and more military forces will be deployed, he said. The Israeli Air Force said it had “striked Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon, including launch sites, terrorist infrastructure sites and buildings where weapons were stored.”
Hezbollah missile leader killed
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) later announced that they had killed the Hezbollah rocket commander in the Beirut suburb of Ghobeiry.
They said Ibrahim Qabisi was responsible for rocket attacks on Israel and attacks on civilians. In addition to Qabisi, other commanders of the rocket unit were also killed, the statement added.
According to the Israeli military, Qabisi “was planning the terrorist kidnapping attack on Mount Dov in the 2000s” in which three Israeli soldiers “were kidnapped and killed.” The bodies of Omar Suwad, Benny Avraham and Adi Avitan were returned to Israel in a 2004 prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah brokered by Germany.
Hezbollah later confirmed Qabisi’s death in a statement.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack. Witnesses said two floors of a building were destroyed and videos showed large plumes of smoke.
Four residents and a Syrian refugee were also killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Lebanese village of Duair south of Beirut, while six people were killed in airstrikes in Nabatijeh, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.
Tens of thousands on the run
Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israeli airstrikes, according to official figures released on Tuesday.
Of the displaced, 27,000 have sought refuge in emergency shelters in the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east, said Nasser Jassin, the acting environment minister.
More than 250 schools have been converted into emergency shelters for this purpose. Since then, basic relief supplies, hygiene items and meals have been distributed to around 20,000 people.
Aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said teams were distributing mattresses and hygiene items in emergency shelters across the country. There are also telephone counselling centres for displaced people to provide them with psychological support.
Many MSF staff remained in their homes in the south and east due to the ongoing Israeli attacks, while others fled.
Militia strikes back
Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon but is backed by Iran, said it had carried out numerous attacks, including on a military base in northern Israel near the city of Safed. The Israeli military also said it had fired about 300 shells from Lebanon into Israeli territory in the past two days.
The militia said it fired a salvo of rockets at Israeli military bases, including the heavier Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets.
The Iran-backed group said it struck bases near the Israeli city of Haifa, a military airport west of Afula and other locations including the town of Rosh Pina.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired more than 8,800 rockets and drones in just under a year. Until the recent escalation, Hezbollah had mainly used smaller rockets and drones against Israel.
Deadly days in Lebanon
The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in two days has risen to 558 and 1,835 people have been injured, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad said.
About 50 children were among the dead, he said. The wounded were being treated in more than 54 hospitals and medical centers in Beirut and southern Lebanon, added Abiad, who is health minister in an interim government.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said two of its staff members were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The agency said it was “outraged and deeply saddened” by the deaths.
Dina Darwiche, who worked at her office in Bekaa in eastern Lebanon, died after the building where she was staying was hit by an Israeli missile on Monday, UNHCR said in a statement.
“Her husband and one of her children were rescued and are being treated in hospital for serious injuries. The bodies of Dina and her youngest son were tragically recovered today,” the statement said.
The report said that Ali Basma, who also worked at the UNHCR office in Tyre in southern Lebanon, died on Monday.
As the war in Gaza approaches its first anniversary, the Israeli strikes mark a dramatic escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah in the north.
In another major blow to Hezbollah last week, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded across Lebanon. Many observers attributed the attack to Israel, although Israel has not officially claimed responsibility.
