Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill hundreds in a single day

Beirut hit as civilian's flee in deadliest 24 hours since 2006

- CHRIS STEVENSON

Israel has intensified its airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon – killing more than 490 people and injuring thousands in the deadliest day for the country since the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, health officials have said.

Children and women were among the dead, with thousands fleeing from the south towards Beirut. Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad told a news conference that the strikes hit hospitals, medical centres and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.

Israel’s aerial bombardment marked the most widespread strikes in nearly a year of cross-border fire triggered by the war in Gaza. Israel’s military claimed it had hit around 800 sites linked to Hezbollah weapons in Lebanon’s south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and northern region near Syria.

Some strikes hit residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut. In response, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into Israel, having launched more than 100 on Sunday.

The airstrikes have intensified pressure on Hezbollah, which last week suffered an attack its leader Hassan Nasrallah called “unprecedented in the history” of the group, after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded. The operation was widely blamed on Israel, and its spy agency Mossad, but Israeli officials have not confirmed or denied responsibility.