Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire a day after the Israeli military launched a wave of air strikes across Lebanon that have killed at least 569 people so far, fanning fears of an all-out war.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Tuesday that the revised number of deaths since strikes began on Monday morning included 50 children and 94 women, with 1,835 wounded.
Earlier the health ministry had reported that at least six people were killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli strike on the southern Beirut suburb of Ghobeiry on Tuesday.
The Israeli military, which reportedly hit a five-storey building in the usually busy neighbourhood, announced the targeted strike – the second in the area in as many days – and said it was targeting a Hezbollah commander.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon reported on Tuesday that “two beloved members of the UNHCR family in Lebanon” had been killed the previous day.
The UNHCR identified them as staffer Dina Darwiche, who was killed with her young son in attacks on the Bekaa region, and contract cleaner Ali Basma, killed in an attack on Ain Baal municipality in south Lebanon.
“[The] UNHCR is outraged by the killing of our colleagues, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones,” the agency said.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli air bases, including the Megiddo airfield near northern Afula, and at an explosives factory about 60km (37 miles) into Israel.
Later, the armed group reported that it had twice targeted the Dado military base in northern Israel with a total of 90 rockets and attacked the Atlit naval base south of Haifa with drones, among other targets.
The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the early evening in the northern city of Safed, where Dado is located, and nearby areas. It did not say whether the base was hit.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters that Hezbollah fired approximately 300 rockets at Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said the airforce conducted “extensive strikes” on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and dozens of launchers that were aimed at Israeli territory.
The new strikes came after Israel said it launched more than 1,600 projectiles into Lebanon on Monday, first hitting areas in the south of the country and then expanding its bombardment to the Bekaa Valley in the east and the capital Beirut, in what is the largest flare-up of violence since the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Lebanese environment minister Nasser Yassin said 27,000 people were registered as displaced by the bombing campaign launched by Israel on Monday.
The strikes have drawn global condemnation and calls for de-escalation as world leaders meet in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes on Monday and overnight “and the numbers continue to grow”, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, adding that “the toll on civilians is unacceptable”.
As people escaped the south of the country towards Beirut, highways were gridlocked through the night.
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from two schools turned into shelters in Beirut, said the facility could house about 120 families, but more displaced people were streaming in.
The caretakers “said that people have been coming here in a state of shock – they are confused, they are angry, they are worried and they are not sure how they will get by tomorrow”.
Nearly 150 schools have been allocated to be turned into shelters by the government.
Families with children were not only coming in from southern Lebanon, but also from a southern suburb of Beirut that was attacked twice by Israel, leaving many “internally displaced even within the capital”, Jabbari said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Civil Defence tackled 176 fires caused by the Israeli strikes. It said it responded to blazes in agricultural land in Harf Miziara and Qartaba and in a landfill in Mashha, among others.
Minister of Health Firass Abiad said the Israeli air strikes targeted medical centres, ambulances and the cars of people trying to escape. The attack sent shock waves through the country and beyond.
More than 30 international flights to and from Beirut were cancelled, according to the Rafic Hariri International Airport’s website.
Qatar Airways said it has suspended flights to and from Beirut until Wednesday. Germany’s Lufthansa, Air France and Delta Air Lines of the United States have also suspended flights to Beirut in recent days, with some carriers’ services to Israel and Iran also affected.
The near-daily, cross-border fighting between the Israeli military and the Lebanese armed group since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October has displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides.
The fighting escalated after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon last week in attacks also blamed on Israel. Close to 40 people were killed and nearly 3,000 maimed and injured, including women and children, in those explosions. Israel has neither denied the attack nor claimed responsibility for it.
On Friday, Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing 59 people including Hezbollah’s second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, Ibrahim Aqil.
The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has said the army will “accelerate offensive actions today [Tuesday] and reinforce all units”, The Jerusalem Post reported.
“We must not give Hezbollah a break,” Halevi was quoted as saying at a situational assessment, according to the newspaper.
