Abhijay Raj Vaish, Pune
The Israeli military launched airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Monday killing 492 people and injuring around 1600 according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Lebanese terror group fired 200 rockets in retaliation to the aggressive stance adopted by the Jewish nation. The day has been marked as the deadliest day of cross-border conflict in the region since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
The Israeli Military has announced of its widening aerial offensive against what it claims to be Hezbollah weapons sites in southern and eastern Lebanon. The strike has led to thousands of civilians in the area to head towards Beirut registering the biggest exodus since the 2006 conflict. The military claimed to hit more than 800 targets while also expanding their offensive including areas of the Bekaa Valley situated along the eastern side of the Lebanese border.
On the evening of Israel’s offensive, Hezbollah launched around 200 rockets into Northern Israel which were mostly intercepted by the Iron Dome Defence System according to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The escalations began when walkie-talkies and pagers exploded in Lebanon on September 18 claiming the lives of 39 people while leaving nearly 3000 injured. These explosions had mostly targetted the Hezbollah group who blamed the Israeli forces for the attack.
The Lebanese Health Ministry has informed that 58 women and 35 children were part of the casualties caused by the Israeli strikes. The Lebanese terror group has vowed its support for Hamas and has refused to back off until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
The Israeli military has asked for Lebanese citizens to evacuate areas where the Hezbollah is storing weapons while announcing more descisive action against the terror group in the coming days. They have not denied possibilities of an on-ground offensive but have been focusing their attention to aerial operations. The fighting has claimed the lives of 600 people in Lebanon since the October attack.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted to not wait for threats to emerge but instead to predict and change the security balance of the region. The United States of America, which is the main weapons supplier to the Jewish nation, has claimed to do everything to prevent a wider war from breaking out.