- September 23, 2024
- 4:24 pm
- Middle East
Israel said it carried out more than 300 strikes on targets of the radical Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on September 23, 2024. Lebanon's Defense Ministry said the attacks killed about 100 people and wounded hundreds. It was unclear how many of the dead were Hezbollah members and how many were civilians.
The attack was the largest since October 2023, when tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border escalated following the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. On September 23, Israel for the first time called on residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes and other buildings where it believed weapons were being stored. Israel warned that the military would launch “massive strikes” against the group, which is designated as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.
There were no signs of evacuation, the Associated Press reported, suggesting that the Lebanese may not know they were living in buildings where Israelis say Hezbollah weapons are being stored.
During the Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, air raid sirens were sounded in northern Israel due to rockets being fired from Lebanon. In northern Israel, one person was injured by shrapnel due to shelling.
On September 22, Hezbollah fired about 150 rockets at Israel in response to attacks in the previous days that killed dozens of its fighters and commanders. Women and children were also killed in the attacks, as well as in explosions of communications devices that Israel suspects of orchestrating, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, which has not been independently confirmed.
Hezbollah has significant influence in Lebanon, with its political wing representing the country's government. The pro-Iranian group launched rockets at Israel the day after the Palestinian group Hamas (recognized as a terrorist group by the US and EU) attacked it in October 2023. Since then, shelling on the border has occurred almost daily. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated from border areas on both sides.
The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is the most serious since the second Lebanon war in 2006, Reuters notes.