Israeli warplanes have pounded the south and east of Lebanon at the same time as locals have been warned to move away from Hezbollah targets, with the region sliding closer to all-out war.
Lebanese official media announced that ‘enemy warplanes have been launched’ early this morning, later adding that at least one civilian had been killed.
Huge plumes of smoke have been pictured at multiple sites deep into the country, with rockets fired at areas not previously hit by strikes and witnesses reporting intense bombing raids.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said that people in the capital Beirut were receiving Israeli phone warnings telling them to evacuate.
‘Citizens in Beirut and a number of areas are receiving landline telephone warning messages whose source is the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate where they are,’ the NNA said.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said their aircraft struck 150 targets this morning, amid reports that they were working to disrupt ‘major rocket attacks’ on Israel.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant confirmed that the IDF was ‘deepening’ attacks in Lebanon and suggested that the situation would intensify, warning in a video message: ‘These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure.’
Gallant further revealed on X this morning that he has provided his US counterpart with a ‘situation assessment of Hezbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.’
He added that the wider regional security situation and ‘threats posed by Iran and its proxies’ were also discussed.
