Israeli airstrikes kill at least 350 in Lebanon as fears of escalation grow

At least 350 people were killed yesterday and more than 1,200 injured, Lebanon's health ministry said, after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on alleged Hezbollah targets that left the country with its highest daily death toll since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

- William Christou

Tens of thousands of people fled from south Lebanese towns and villages along the main road towards the capital, Beirut, in Israel's most intense barrage in nearly a year of cross-border clashes, as sirens were also heard in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The Lebanese health ministry said "children, women and paramedics" were among the casualties.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said the military was changing the "security balance" along its northern border. "I promised we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north- and that is exactly what we are doing," the Israeli prime minister told a security meeting yesterday.

The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said the Israeli military was preparing for the "next phases" in Lebanon, saying he would elaborate later. "Essentially, we are targeting combat infrastructure that Hezbollah has been building for the past 20 years. This is very significant," he said.

The IDF said it had hit more than 1,300 Hezbollah targets in the previous 24 hours in its biggest attack on the militant group since the Gaza war began last October, when Hezbollah began strikes in Israel in support of Hamas. Lebanon's health ministry put the death toll at 356 people last night, with 1,246 injured. Israel also carried out airstrikes in the Bekaa valley and its second airstrike on Beirut in a week, with what it said was a "limited" airstrike in Dahieh in the southern suburbs. Israeli media reported that the target of the strike was Ali Karaki, Hezbollah's number three military commander. About 35 rockets were, meanwhile, fired from Lebanon towards the Safed area of Israel, the IDF said, with some coming down in open areas close to the community of Ami'ad.