Israeli Air Strikes Kill Nearly 500 in Lebanon in One Day

Making it the deadliest day of conflict there since 2006
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 24, 2024 12:00 AM CDT
Israeli Air Strikes Kill Nearly 500 in Lebanon in One Day
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.   (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Monday was the deadliest day of conflict in Lebanon since 2006, with Israeli air strikes killing at least 492 people, per Lebanon's health ministry. Among those were 35 children and 58 women, the BBC reports. Another 1,645 were wounded in the wave of air strikes, which Israel Defense Forces says hit more than 1,300 Hezbollah targets in 24 hours, the Guardian reports. That's the IDF's largest attack on the militant group since October, when the Hamas attacks on Israel launched the Israel-Hamas war. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes, heading toward Lebanon's capital city of Beirut, and officials say thousands of families have been displaced.

World leaders are concerned, with one EU official warning a UN gathering, "We are almost in a full-fledged war." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, "I promised we would change the security balance, the balance of power [along Israel's northern border] and that is exactly what we are doing." The IDF chief of staff says the military is "targeting combat infrastructure that Hezbollah has been building for the past 20 years" since the 2006 war. (US President Joe Biden says America is "working to de-escalate." Meanwhile, in response to the violence, the US is deploying additional troops to the Middle East.)

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