Middle East Crisis: Israel Hit 300 Hezbollah Targets Inside Lebanon

• Arabic news sources claim Israel ‘carpet bombing’ Lebanon in ‘relentless’ attacks

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claim to have struck over 300 Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon in a relentless attacks early on Monday morning.

This comes on the heel of Lebanese media reporting Israeli airstrikes on multiple locations, with the wounded being transported to hospitals.

The reports indicated that in the process, at least one person is known to have been killed in the sustained strikes by the IDF.

The attack had been forewarned overnight, with Israel’s military announcing it was planning to step up operations.

A statement by the IDF’s Arabic language spokesperson had urged Lebanese people to flee their homes in advance of the wave of strikes, and a reported 60,000 automated phone calls were made to residents in Lebanon, telling them to evacuate.

This is as unverified videos posted to social media showed multiple large explosions and chaotic scenes with the Arabic news sources saying Israel is “carpet bombing” areas of Lebanon in a “relentless” series of attacks.

From the southern town of Marjayoun, Lebanon, smoke was seen rising from Israeli airstrikes on Taybeh village and alongside its regular update, the IDF published an image of its chief of staff approving the wave of airstrikes from the military’s underground command room in Tel Aviv.

“We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon, the actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes,” Israel’s Defense Secretary, Yoav Gallant said in a video published by his office on Monday.

Gallant further said; “These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure.”

According to Reuters reports, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said it had “seen an intensification of bombardments throughout the area of operations, close to the Blue Line,” referring to the line separating the two countries.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military appears to have confirmed the Hezbollah claim to have launched rockets at Israel.

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said; “approximately 25 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory” in the areas of Ami’ad and Safed, adding that “approximately 10 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon” into the lower Galilee area.

It added “The IDF aerial defense array successfully intercepted a number of projectiles. Numerous falls were identified in open areas.”

There is no report of any casualties.

Lebanon telecoms Chief, Imad Kreidieh says it will stop automated Israeli calls telling resident to evacuate

About 60,000 calls were made across all of Lebanon which played a pre-recorded message instructing people to evacuate their homes, Imad Kreidieh, the Chairman of Ogero, which operates Lebanon’s telecommunications infrastructure, said.

“What the Israelis are doing is sending a bunch of automated voice recordings through international carriers, the system doesn’t recognise them as Israeli calls, most of them are generated as calls coming from a friendly country”, Kreidieh told the Guardian.

He added that it was an “old technique” also used by Israel during its July 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Ogero has “located the source of the calls and will stop it,” Kreidieh said.

On his part, Lebanon’s Minister of Information, Ziad Makari earlier said in a statement on Monday morning that work in the ministry is “continuous and normal” after he received one of the calls.

“The method is not strange to the Israeli enemy, which uses all means in its psychological warfare. We call to not lend the matter more [attention] than it deserves,” Makari said.

Similarly, Lebanon’s Minister of Culture also reported receiving a call from someone speaking “classical Arabic in a strange accent” warning that he should leave his office immediately as he could be a target.