Bloodshed in the Middle East: Israeli Strikes on Hezbollah Claim Nearly 500 Lives in Devastating Airstrike

According to information from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 492 people were killed and more than 1,600 were injured in the airstrikes carried out by Israel yesterday in Lebanon, and this was the country’s deadliest day since clashes between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group intensified.

In recent days, Israel has increasingly shifted the focus of its military campaign from the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip to the conflict with the Hezbollah group, which launches almost daily rocket attacks on northern Israel, the publication said.

The Israeli government declared a state of emergency across the country last night after intensifying the fighting between the Israeli army and the Lebanese movement “Hezbollah” in southern Lebanon, DPA reported.

Israeli media reported that the state of emergency will last at least until September 30. This means that authorities will, among other restrictions, be able to limit the scale of gatherings. However, the army has not issued new instructions at this time.

Israel suffered massive attacks from southern Lebanon yesterday. The Israeli army said it had hit around 800 targetslinked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley region.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, said that under the massive attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. the Israeli air force has “destroyed tens of thousands of rockets that threatened Israeli citizens”.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire almost daily for almost a year. Around 150,000 people on both sides of the border were forced to flee their homes because of the attacks. Last week, the conflict intensified again after an Israeli attack on the leadership of Hezbollah near Beirut and after thousands of communication devices were fired in Lebanon, killing more than 50 people, including civilians.

Israel’s armed forces say they will do “whatever it takes” to push Hezbollah from Lebanon’s border with Israel.

Thousands of southern Lebanese residents have fled their homes and caused traffic jams on the main highway to Beirut, in the largest exodus of people from the south of the country since the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Hezbollah’s response

According to information from the Israeli armed forces, the group Hezbollah fired more than 100 missiles at Israel last night. Shells penetrated deep into Israeli territory, including around the northern city of Haifa and parts of the occupied West Bank. Most of them were intercepted, but two people were slightly injured by falling debris in northern Israel.

Hezbollah announced today that it had carried out several attacks that night attacks on Israeli military facilities, including an explosives factory 60 kilometers from the border with LebanonReuters and DPA reported.

The organization said it attacked Israel at least six times this morning with Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 missiles.

Hezbollah said it shelled three times around 4:00 local time (Bulgarian time) the factory and the military airport near Kibbutz Megiddo, as well as the Ramat David military base near Haifa.

Hezbollah announced the use of Fadi missiles for the first time on Sunday and presented them in a video. The missiles are named in honor of an engineer from the group who died in the conflict with Israel in 1987. According to the information published in the video, the six-meter missile has a range of 70 to 100 km. and can carry warheads weighing between 80 and 170 kilograms.

It is believed to be a variant of the Syrian-developed Khaybar-1 missile, which Hezbollah first used in 2006.

Despite the increase in the group’s violence Hezbollah has so far refrained from deliberately targeting Israeli settlements, nor has it used its most advanced weapons.writes the British publication “Telegraph”.

The most obvious answer to the question why Hizbollah has currently adopted a position of relative restraint which Iran is holding backsaid the newspaper. Tehran sees Hezbollah as its insurance policy in case Israel attacks its nuclear program, and the more missiles the group spends now, the more it will erode Iran’s deterrent power in the future, the paper.

However, the leadership of “Hezbollah” also has reasons not to escalate the conflict too much, notes “Telegraph”. The group is much better equipped than in 2006, when Israel failed to defeat its forces in a bloody conflict in southern Lebanon, the paper said.

Although he now has 10 times the number of missiles and a much more powerful arsenal, Hezbollah would rather engage Israel in a longer, low-intensity conflict that would weaken its resolve than expend all its firepower in a massive conflict it may not winthe British newspaper ceased to exist.