This is a developing story.
Following a warning to Lebanese civilians, the IDF carried out possibly its largest series of attacks during the current war, hitting over 300 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley by around noon on Monday.
At the time of publication, the IDF announced it had begun a third wave of strikes in southern Lebanon, while another wave focusing on the Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah is reportedly hiding many of its strategic weapons, was to follow later in the day.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health claimed that around 274 people had died and over 1,000 were wounded in the strikes, a number that is much higher than previous Israeli strikes in Lebanon. There was no information about how many of the casualties were Hezbollah members.
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The Israeli attacks reportedly focused on Hezbollah infrastructure deeply embedded in populated areas, which may have contributed to the high casualty count.
Among the casualties was Ali Aburia, a senior Hezbollah official, Sky News Arabia reported.
The strikes throughout Monday were of a scope unprecedented since the start of the war, with Israeli media reporting that hundreds of aircraft participated in continuous action for hours on end.
The sound of Israeli fighter jets was heard across the country, even in the Jerusalem area, far from the northern border. The amount of smoke from the explosions in Lebanon was so great that some local councils in northern Israel released statements to calm their residents who worried that fires had broken out near them.
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In an unusual statement following a first wave of airstrikes on Monday morning, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari had warned citizens to move out of harm’s way just before the Israeli Air Force began the second wave of strikes that continued for over three hours.
According to reports in Arabic media, the warnings and subsequent strikes caused thousands of residents to flee north from southern Lebanon. Schools in Beirut stopped classes and sent the children home.
The Minister of Education in Lebanon ordered elementary and high schools to close on Monday and Tuesday in all the districts of south Lebanon, Nabatiya, the Bekaa Valley, Baalbek, al-Hermel and the Dahiyeh district of Beirut.
The Health Ministry also instructed hospitals to halt non-essential surgeries to prepare for an expected wave of casualties.
Around 2 p.m., the IDF released a second warning to Lebanese citizens before the start of another wave of strikes, this time addressing residents of the Bekaa Valley.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the villages of the Bekaa region in Lebanon. Hezbollah operations force the IDF to act against terrorist infrastructure in your villages,” wrote the army’s Arabic spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee.
“The IDF is not interested in harming you. If you are inside or near a house containing Hezbollah weapons – you must leave it and move away from it within two hours to a distance of no less than 1,000 meters outside the village, or go to the central school near you and do not return to it until further notice. Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities, and weapons is putting his life and the lives of his family members at risk,” he added.
Speaking against the background of a flood of images and videos showing massive explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes, Hagari said: “The sights that are now seen in southern Lebanon, these are the explosions of Hizbollah’s weapons, which are exploding inside houses.”
“In every house we attack, there are weapons – rockets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, which were intended and aimed at killing Israeli civilians.”
This article originally appeared on ALL ISRAEL NEWS, and is reposted with permission.
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Michael L. Brown