More than half a million people have been displaced in Lebanon after renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, as regional tensions escalate following the US-Israeli war with Iran.
According to Al Jazeera, Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Haneen Sayed said that the number of people who have registered with the government’s refugee program has reached 517,000 since the fighting resumed last week. Of these, 117,228 are now living in government-provided housing.
The situation has worsened after Israel expanded its military campaign, carrying out its first airstrikes in western Beirut, especially in the southern suburbs of the capital. The move is seen as a major escalation in the conflict in the country. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 394 people had been killed in the fighting over the past week, including 83 children, 42 women and 9 emergency workers.
Early Sunday, an Israeli drone struck a hotel room in the Raouche neighborhood, a popular tourist resort that has recently become home to thousands of people displaced by the fighting. The attack killed at least four people and wounded ten others.
The Israeli military said five senior commanders of the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that is responsible for foreign operations, were killed in the strike. The conflict in Lebanon flared up again on Monday after Hezbollah launched rockets and drone attacks on Israel, saying it was avenging the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike last month.
Following the attack, Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as southern suburbs of Beirut, while its ground forces advanced into the country’s south, seizing several mountains near the border. Meanwhile, the Israeli military confirmed the deaths of two Israeli soldiers in fighting in southern Lebanon, the first Israeli soldiers to die in the conflict since fighting resumed last week.
Hezbollah continues to fire rockets and drones into northern Israel, claiming direct combat with Israeli forces near the border town of Aitaroun. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his country was being “dragged into a destructive war that it did not want,” warning that the massive displacement in the country could lead to an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis.
For its part, the Israeli military says it has killed nearly 200 Hezbollah fighters since the fighting resumed, although the group has yet to officially release casualties.
