Lebanese health authorities on Tuesday raised the death toll from two days of Israeli airstrikes targeting Hizbollah to 558. Palestinian officials in Gaza, meanwhile, said new Israeli strike killed at least seven people in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel’s military says it will do "whatever is necessary” to push Hizbollah away from Lebanon’s border with Israel. Israel and Hizbollah have been trading fire since the Israel-Hamas war began.
On Monday, Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing nearly 500 people and wounding more than 1,600 others.
Thousands of people fled southern Lebanon, jamming the main highway to Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 Israel-Hizbollah war.
It's a staggering toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices the week before. Lebanon blamed the attacks on Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny its responsibility.
Hizbollah again launched some 100 projectiles toward Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.
A man checks the damage to a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in the southern village of Akbieh, Lebanon, on Tuesday. AP
Changing focus
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hizbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.
With the region increasingly on edge, over 30 international flights to and from Beirut on Tuesday were cancelled, according to the Rafic Hariri International Airport's website. Airlines affected included Qatar Airways, Turkish Airways and various airlines from the UAE.
Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on the Mahmoudieh mountain, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, on Tuesday. AP
Fears of a wider war
The fighting has raised fears that the United States, Israel's close ally, and regional power Iran, which has proxies across the Middle East – Hizbollah, Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq – will be sucked into a wider war.
The strikes have piled pressure on Hizbollah, which last week suffered heavy losses when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded in the worst security breach in its history.
People who fled the southern villages sit on their cars at a highway that links to Beirut city, in Sidon on Tuesday. AP
Israel's intelligence and technological prowess has given it a strong edge in both Lebanon and Gaza. It has tracked down and assassinated top Hizbollah commanders and Hamas leaders.
Israel's military said about 55 projectiles had crossed into Israel in the latest attacks, but the majority were intercepted and several fallen projectiles had been identified in the Upper Galilee area.
"Damage was caused to buildings in the area," it said, adding that of the projectiles were intercepted in the Haamakim area and the rest fell in open areas.
Huge traffic snarls in Sidon as residents flee the southern villages. AP
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven major democracies said the Middle East risked being dragged into a broader conflict that no country would gain from, according to a statement released after they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Fears of regional instability
An all-out war could create instability across the Middle East in addition to a devastating war in Gaza which shows no sign of easing.
Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hizbollah have escalated after almost a year of hostilities that flared last October as the Gaza war erupted.
Families from south Lebanon on Monday loaded cars, vans and trucks with belongings and people young and old. Highways north were gridlocked.
Reuters
