At least 50 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, health ministry says

At least 50 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded in Israeli attacks across eastern and southern Lebanon. Children, women and paramedics among those killed and wounded in the attacks, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

Israel’s military has warned civilians to avoid Hezbollah positions as it pounds southern Lebanon, while it was reported that phone warnings have been received across the country.

The Israeli army reported on Monday that its warplanes had launched more than 300 strikes in Lebanon.

The intensification of the fighting across the shared border, which has seen low-level skirmishes since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October, follows last week’s explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies which killed dozens in Lebanon. The increased hostilities further raise fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, or even a wider regional conflagration.

In the early hours of Monday, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the army had conducted “extensive strikes” against Hezbollah posts after identifying attempts to fire missiles. Israel’s government recently declared that it was shifting more focus to the fighting with Hezbollah in a bid to allow the 60,000 or so Israelis evacuated from the border areas to return.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called on the public to remain calm as the military broadened its assault.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that “citizens in Beirut and a number of areas are receiving landline telephone warning messages whose source is the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate.”

Information Minister Ziad Makary’s office in Beirut said it received a landline call featuring a “recorded message” that told them to evacuate the building in order to avoid an air strike.

NNA labelled the phone warnings “part of the psychological war that the enemy has adopted”.