Israel has struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the militant group has attacked military facilities in northern Israel, increasing fears of a full-blown conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in decades.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets overnight, a day after carrying out air strikes against the armed group which Lebanese authorities said killed 558 people and wounded 1,835. Tens of thousands more have fled for safety.
Hezbollah said it targeted several Israeli military targets overnight including an explosives factory 60km into Israel, and the Megiddo airfield near the northern Israeli town of Afula three times overnight.
Israel’s military chief said Hezbollah, which suffered major blows recently, must not be given a break and that attacks on the Iran-backed group would be accelerated after Lebanon’s deadliest day in decades.
“The situation requires continued, intense action in all arenas,” said Military Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi after holding a security assessment.
The United Nations human rights chief called on anyone with influence in the Middle East to seek to avert hostilities as the attacks increased fears of a full-blown war.
“UN High Commissioner Volker Turk calls on all states and actors with influence in the region and beyond to avert further escalation and do everything they can to ensure full respect for international law,” Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for Turk said at a Geneva press briefing.
“The methods and means of warfare that are being used raise very serious concerns about whether this is compliant with international humanitarian law,” she added.
The fighting has raised fears the US and regional power Iran will be sucked into a wider war.
Australians urged to leave Lebanon
Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for restraint and de-escalation.
“We are deeply concerned, we’re alarmed by the escalation and the loss of civilian life both in Lebanon and also the attacks into Israel,” she said.
“We have consistently said we wish to see de-escalation. We believe wider regional conflict is not in any interest for peoples of this region.”
Wong said any Australians in Lebanon should leave immediately while commercial flights are available.
Australia was doing what it could to develop a contingency plan to get people out of Lebanon but numbers were “beyond the capacity of the government to provide assistance to all”, she said.
Australians in Lebanon can register
Approximately 15,000 Australians normally live in Lebanon but that number increases by several thousand during Lebanon’s summer, according to DFAT.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas.
The strikes have redoubled the pressure on Hezbollah, which last week suffered heavy losses when.
The operation was widely blamed on Israel, which has not confirmed or denied responsibility.
Hezbollah’s media office said on Tuesday that Israel was dropping leaflets with a “very dangerous” barcode on them onto Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, warning that scanning it by phone would “withdraw all information” from any device.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Hezbollah’s media office did not say if anything else was written on the flyers.
Israel’s intelligence and technological prowess has given it a strong edge in both Lebanon and Gaza. It has tracked down and assassinated top Hezbollah commanders and Hamas leaders.
Hospitals overwhelmed and thousands displaced
With the region increasingly on edge, over 30 international flights to and from Beirut on Tuesday were cancelled, according to the Rafic Hariri International Airport’s website.
Airlines affected included Qatar Airways, Turkish Airways and some from the United Arab Emirates.
Some Lebanese hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of wounded, a World Health Organization official in Lebanon said, and Haifa’s main hospital has moved operations to an underground facility after the Israeli city was attacked on Monday.
“We’re looking at tens of thousands (of displaced in Lebanon), but we expect that those figures will start to rise,” said the UN refugee agency’s spokesperson, Matthew Saltmarsh.
Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon last week. Source: AAP / Wael Hamzeh/EPA
“The situation is extremely alarming.”
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people during the group’s October 7 attack on Israel, taking around 250 hostages.
The Israeli military’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,300 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
