Israel hammers Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon with strikes
Israel continued to hammer southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley with airstrikes overnight into Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it hit around 75 targets, all of which it said belonged to Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces said “weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists, and terrorist infrastructure” were among the targets hit as the military said it continued its operation in a bid to “dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities” and infrastructure.
Israel’s strikes have had a deadly toll in Lebnaon, with more than 600 people, including dozens of children, killed since Monday, about half the number of people killed over the 34 days of fighting during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, fueling fears of a developing humanitarian crisis in a nation that has been hard hit by economic and political crisis, as well as the impacts of the Port of Beirut explosion and the Covid-19 pandemic.
U.S. and others call for cease-fire as fears grow of all-out war
The U.S., European Union and nearly a dozen other nations have called for an immediate 21-day cease-fire in order for negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah to prevent the possibility of an all-out war in the region.
President Joe Biden warned yesterday that the feared outcome was possible, but that there was an “opportunity” for “a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region,” as Israel also continues its deadly offensive in Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, with Israel continuing to hammer parts of the Bekaa Valley and the south with airstrikes overnight.