BEIRUT: not 24 hours passed after Hezbollah responded with "Fadi 1" and"Fadi 2" rockets on the outskirts of Haifa, targeting the Ramat David base and military industrial complexes, until Israel brutally escalated its raids and Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday killed more than 350 people, including more than 60 women and 24 children, and wounded 1246 Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
The raids reached Beirut, the capital, and the attacks for the first time affected the Bint Jbeil area, and used an unprecedented abundance of fire that led to a large exodus from the south, causing suffocating traffic crises, and opened schools and official institutions to receive the displaced in the mountain and Beirut.
What is remarkable is the absence of the American and European deterrent position to expand the war, which analysts interpreted as a “white card” for Netanyahu for two months until the US elections, while the Israeli military spokesman announced that he did not rule out ground entry into Lebanon, saying that Israel “will do everything necessary”.
The Israeli army said that over the past 24 hours, it attacked more than 1,100 targets in Lebanon using more than 1,400 types of ammunition through about 650 sorties.
The situation was inflamed and complicated by the implementation of a new raid by the Israeli Air Force on the southern suburb of Beirut, as warplanes fired six missiles at a building in the Madi neighborhood in the southern suburb, targeting, according to the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz”, the commander of the southern front Ali Karki.
Immediately, "Hezbollah" elements hit a security cordon at the scene of the raid and ambulances rushed to the aid of the injured. Analysts expected a strong response from the party to the targeting. Some of the rockets that were fired did not explode and 7 people were injured, including in a very critical condition, and the party then announced that Karaki had survived the assassination attempt.
Hezbollah responded by firing rockets from southern Lebanon in the direction of the finger of Galilee, and in the afternoon the Rockets hit the area of Central Haifa for the first time, south of Haifa, Safed, Carmel, West of the sea of Galilee, the “HaSharon” area in Tel Aviv and areas near Ben Gurion Airport. The Israeli media talked about the expansion of “Hezbollah” the scope of rocket fire and numerous injuries.
The raids were accompanied by Israeli threats to residents to evacuate the houses, which allegedly “Hezbollah” turned into military barracks and rocket launchers.
The hostile raids continued throughout the day and included the Nabatiyeh, tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, leaving hundreds of martyrs and wounded, as the Emergency Operations Room at the Ministry of health was issuing an update on the number of victims, which reached 350 martyrs and 1200 wounded, including a party official in tyre district, in addition to serious damage to houses, cars and shops and fires. These raids caused heavy displacement from the villages and towns of the south, where the coastal highway from tyre to Sidon to the Khalda triangle and Beirut witnessed suffocating traffic.
In the face of the large displacement movement, the minister of Interior and municipalities, Bassam Mawlawi, ordered the opening of schools, while many official schools and institutes in Beirut and the North and in the Mount Lebanon areas, specifically the Chouf, Aliyah and Baabda, have begun to receive the displaced.
Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, while chairing the Cabinet session, confirmed what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced about his fears of turning southern Lebanon into Gaza again, “that the Israeli aggression against Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word and a destructive plan aimed at destroying Lebanese villages and towns and eliminating all green spaces .
Air traffic at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut was affected, and 14 airlines stopped their flights to Lebanon, according to the head of the syndicate of owners of Tourism and travel offices Jean Abboud.
In the evening, the Pentagon said that the United States will send a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in anticipation of escalating tensions between Israel and the Lebanese group “Hezbollah”, but did not specify the exact number or mission of the troops sent.
Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters “” as an extra precaution, we are sending an additional small number of US military personnel to reinforce our troops already in the region .
A businessman close to Netanyahu: Jordan after Lebanon and Gaza
The former head of the Israeli contractors union, Roni Mizrahi, in an interview with the Israeli media, threatened Jordan, speaking about the great destruction that the occupation has done in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
“What we see in Lebanon today will be in Jordan next,” said Mizrahi, a businessman close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .
“We don't want to hurt people, we want to destroy facilities, and this is possible, and we have the capabilities for this, because the next country will be Jordan,” he added .
A state of emergency has been declared in all of Israel for a week
The Israeli Government urgently ratified the declaration of a state of emergency on the home front throughout Israel.
According to the Israel Broadcasting Authority, “the decision to ratify the declaration of a state of emergency will come into force immediately and for a week”.
Large areas in the north of Israel on Monday experienced a state of alert and emergency for the second day in a row, after “Hezbollah” targeted areas in the upper and Lower Galilee and the Haifa area with its rockets.
Residents of the city of Haifa rushed to shelters after the sirens sounded yesterday evening, an AFP correspondent reported. According to Israeli media, about half a million Israeli students will be affected by the ban on education in the North, after all classrooms in the North and beyond were moved to become remote, including 110 in the Haifa area alone.
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