Israeli jets strike Baalbek in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley

Описание: (23 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baalbek, Lebanon - 23 September 2024
1. Various of large plumes of smoke billowing following Israeli airstrike on Baalbek in the Bekaa valley
STORYLINE:
Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 270 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting.

More than 1,000 other people were wounded in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.

Israeli airstrikes also struck targets in the northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, where a shepherd was killed and two family members were wounded, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. It said a total of 30 people were wounded in different strikes.

The toll surpassed that of Beirut's devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut that the strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances.

The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.

The Israeli military announced that it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites.

Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.

The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria.

AP video shot by Suleiman Amhaz

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