Israel's large-scale airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday resulted in 492 deaths and 1,645 injuries, as thousands of people in the south of the country fled for safety.
According to Lebanese Health Ministry on Monday night, 35 children and 58 women were among those killed in the strikes.
Israeli warplanes conducted intensive raids in southern and eastern Lebanon, forcing thousands of residents from the cities of Tyre, Nabatieh, and Iqlim al-Tuffah to flee towards Beirut and Mount Lebanon, leading to congested main roads filled with civilian vehicles.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that since Monday morning, they have struck 1,300 targets with Lebanon.
"We're leaving as well, because we were caught in that barrage of exchange of rockets between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel has been targeting southern Lebanon for quite a few hours since the early morning of Monday, with hundreds of rockets and with their airplanes over in southern Lebanon, against hundreds of positions of Hezbollah, that's what the IDF has been saying," Evangelo Sipsas, a reporter with China Global Television Network (CGTN), said in a video recorded in a car that was part of the stream of traffic fleeing the south.
"We were in Tyre, and we had to leave. We were told to leave because things were intensifying. Traffic right now on the road is very intense, is very heavy. People are fleeing from all the southern parts. A lot of people who are leaving the area right now, a lot of people that are going away are very much concerned that this could turn out to be not only a regional conflict, but something larger than that," he said in the video.
Lebanon's Minister of Public Health, Firass Abiad, said on Monday that thousands of families have been displaced in areas targeted in Israeli airstrikes.
Also on Monday, Israeli airstrikes in Beirut targeted Ali Karki, a senior Hezbollah commander. Later, Hezbollah issued a statement claiming that Karaki is "safe."
In response to the Israeli attacks, Hezbollah fired over 150 rockets toward northern Israel throughout Monday, the Israeli military reported.
Since Oct 8, 2023, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border amid fears of a broader conflict as the war between Hamas and Israel continues in the Gaza Strip.
Death toll from Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon rises to 492 as people in south flee for safety
