Israel’s offensive in Lebanon has claimed the lives of at least 136 people within 24 hours, as airstrikes continued into Monday morning, Al Jazeera reports.
Meanwhile on Monday, Israel conducted its first strike in the Lebanese capital, killing three members of a Palestinian fighter group, according to their organization.
Israel, which has not yet commented on the strike, launched a wave of air strikes on Lebanon last week, mainly targeting strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah. On Friday it dealt Hezbollah a seismic blow by killing its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
The strikes have killed hundreds and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes, and left people across crisis-wracked Lebanon and the wider region fearful of more violence to come.
Most of Israel’s strikes over the past week have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the main bastion of the group.
On Monday, a drone strike on a building in Beirut’s busy Cola district killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist armed group said.
Lebanon’s health ministry also reported the strike, saying it had killed four people and wounded four others.
In the last week, Israeli bombardment has killed over 700 people in Lebanon, including 14 paramedics over a two-day period, according to the ministry.
Some 100,000 people have fled to Syria from Lebanon due to Israeli air strikes, a figure that has doubled in two days, the United Nations' refugee head said on Monday.
Hours after the Cola strike, Palestinian group Hamas announced that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, had been killed along with his wife and two children in another strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced the launch of more strikes on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa region in the east of the country.
Israel “will continue to attack powerfully, damage and degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and infrastructure in Lebanon,” the army said in a statement on Telegram.
Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.
