Tens of thousands of people fled southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Israel continued airstrikes on Hezbollah positions, killing more than 550 people.
Hezbollah hit back with a new cross-border barrage and the Israeli military said it would step up operations against the Iran-backed militant group.
Washington was preparing to send in troops to help evacuate Americans, but dozens of international flights were canceled amid fears that fresh clashes between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into an all-out regional conflict.
“You could say we are almost in a state of full-scale war,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters earlier. “If this is not a war situation, I don’t know what to call it.”
In New York City, where the UN General Assembly is being held, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with representatives from the Group of Seven countries later on Tuesday, and the ongoing crisis in southern Lebanon is expected to top the agenda, a senior State Department official said.
Meanwhile, Israel said on Tuesday it had “eliminated” a top Hezbollah leader, Ibrahim Kobaisi, who led Hezbollah’s missile and rocket forces, which have been attacking Israeli positions and settlements near the Lebanese border.
The main highway from southern Lebanon to Beirut was jammed as terrified residents heeded Israeli warnings and loaded what possessions they could grab into their cars to flee north.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated as of Tuesday that tens of thousands of Lebanese had fled their homes.
“We went through a lot of hardship to get here,” Ali Hassan, who fled Tyre, one of Lebanon’s largest cities, told The Associated Press. “Some of my relatives and my wife’s brothers are still sleeping on the streets because they haven’t found shelter. Schools are full.”
At the Hotel Technical School in Dekwane, a southeastern suburb of Beirut, dozens of families were sleeping rough on mattresses in classrooms as workers from the Catholic relief organization Caritas distributed food and other necessities.
Inside the school, the voices of children playing in the hallways could be heard from time to time, and adults, clearly exhausted from the shell shockwaves, could be seen smoking cigarettes in the shade of the covered entrance.
UNICEF warned on Tuesday that further escalation of the conflict would be “devastating” for Lebanon’s children and families.
Nearly 500 people died in Lebanon on Monday, according to local health authorities. By Tuesday, the death toll had risen to at least 558, including at least 50 children and 94 women, while the number of injured reached at least 1,835, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Additionally, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that six more people were killed and 15 injured in what Israel called a “targeted attack” on the southern outskirts of Beirut.
The shelling of southern Lebanon began after Israeli intelligence surprised militant groups by detonating explosive-packed pagers and walkie-talkies that it had secretly supplied to their members.
This was followed on Friday by airstrikes in densely populated areas of Beirut, killing at least 45 people, including two senior Hezbollah leaders.
The Israel Defense Forces said they had carried out a series of attacks on several Hezbollah-held sites early Tuesday, and later said they had also carried out attacks in Beirut.
“We must not give Hezbollah a respite,” Israeli army chief of staff Gen. Helgi Halevi said during a morning inspection.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging artillery fire at each other since an Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Many experts agree that neither Israel nor Iran want a full-scale direct conflict, but they worry that escalating attacks could lead to conflict.
A senior State Department official told NBC News that the US does not accept Israel’s strategy against Hezbollah.
Asked whether Israel might launch a ground invasion of Lebanon, the official said “it is important to take Israeli preparations seriously,” but stressed that the United States did not believe such a move would reduce violence in the region.
