The US is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.
This comes after the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, as Israel bombed Lebanon on Monday, killing nearly 500 people.
Following the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Lebanese people, telling them to move away from danger as the Israeli military hit Hezbollah targets in the country's south and east.
"Please, get out of harm's way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes," Netanyahu said in a video statement shortly after the Israeli army announced it had struck 800 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
In a recorded message, Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying "take this warning seriously."
Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading towards capital Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.
Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people—a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.
Some strikes hit residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos, more than 80 miles (130 kilometres) from the border north of Beirut.
The Israeli military said it struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets Monday, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets, and attack drones. Israel estimates Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range projectiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
Earlier Monday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported three missiles hit southern Beirut's Beir al-Abed neighbourhood. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded.
Israel said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria.
Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the wake of Israel's invasion and occupation of Lebanon.
Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing its "next phases" of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were "proactive," targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said the goal was to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets towards Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.
The evacuation warnings were the first of their kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire on Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed a top commander and dozens of fighters.
The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of an all-out war, even as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of scores of hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, meanwhile, have stopped their patrols and are staying in their bases "given the volume of exchange of fire," a UN spokesman said.
Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that UN Secretary-General António Guterres was "alarmed" at the escalating violence and large number of civilian casualties reported in Lebanon.
Monday's death toll far surpassed that of Beirut's devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.
The Lebanese Health Ministry asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone non-urgent surgeries to treat people wounded by "Israel's expanding aggression on Lebanon."
On Monday, residents received text messages reading: "If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice," Lebanese media reported.
Lebanon's information minister, Ziad Makary, said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.
"This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy," Makary said, and urged people "not to give the matter more attention than it deserves."
Communities on both sides of the border have largely emptied because of the near-daily exchanges of fire.
'Concrete ideas to de-escalate crisis'
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's main ally and weapons supplier, said Washington was "working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely."
The Pentagon said it was sending a small number of additional US military personnel to the Middle East after thousands were deployed earlier alongside warships, fighter jets and air defence systems.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. now has about 40,000 troops in the region.
On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, two Navy destroyers and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, headed to the Sixth Fleet area in Europe on a regularly scheduled deployment.
The ships' departure opens up the possibility that the US could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Arabian Gulf, in the region in case more violence breaks out.
"In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional US military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region," Ryder said. "But for operational security reasons, I'm not going to comment on or provide specifics."
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity at the UNGA, told AFP that Washington opposed an Israeli ground invasion targeting Hezbollah and had "concrete ideas" on how to de-escalate the crisis.
G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that "no country stands to gain" from escalating conflict, warning of "unimaginable consequences" if a regional war broke out.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel and Hezbollah were "almost in full-fledged war", ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
UN chief Antonio Guterres was "gravely alarmed" by civilian casualties in Lebanon, his spokesman said.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon warned "any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences".
Qatar, a mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, said Israel's bombardment of Lebanon "puts the region on the brink of the abyss", while Turkey said the strikes threatened "chaos" and Jordan urged an immediate end to the escalation "before it is too late".
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the strikes and ordered Palestinian medical staff in Lebanon to provide support for the wounded.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of transforming entire communities in the south into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure. That could lead the Israeli military to wage an especially heavy bombing campaign, even if no ground forces move in.
An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday killed a top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the Oct. 7 attack in what it said was an attempt to pin down Israeli forces to help Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily intensified.
Hezbollah has said it will keep up attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but that appears increasingly elusive as the war nears its anniversary.
Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.
Some 100 captives are still held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel's airstrikes and ground invasion have killed over 41,000 Palestinians, with women and children making up a little over half of those killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
