Hours after Israeli strikes killed nearly 500 people in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached out to the Lebanese people and asked them not to become “human shields” for the Hezbollah.
Here are top 10 points in this big story:
- Israel’s war is not with the Lebanese people, but with Hezbollah, which has been placing missiles in their homes, said Netanyahu in a video message shared online, and vowed to take out those weapons out to ensure the safety of Israelis.
- “I have a message for the people of Lebanon: Israel’s war is not with you, it’s with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens. To defend our people against Hezbollah strikes, we must take out those weapons,” said the Israeli Prime Minister.
- Netanyahu said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has warned the Lebanese people to get out of harms’ way and that they must take it seriously. The Lebanese must not endanger their own lives for the Hezbollah cause, he urged.
- “Don’t let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please, get out of harm’s way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes,” said Netanyahu.
- The latest strikes come as the violence has shifted from Israel’s southern frontier with Gaza to its northern border with Lebanon. Hezbollah, which runs Lebanon, has been exchanging fire with Israel in support of the Palestinian group Hamas since the war began.
- Called “Operation Northern Arrows” by the IDF, the Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon. Beirut faced a “targeted strike” as well.
- The Hezbollah-led health ministry in Lebanon pegged the casualties at 492 until Monday night. These included 35 children and 58 women. At least 1,645 were wounded while thousands of families had been displaced, said Health Minister Firass Abiad.
- Yesterday’s attacks – which marked the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the Gaza war began last year – were condemned by Arab states and other global powers. They have urged Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of all-out war, though both defiant, refusing to leave a single inch for the other.
- Ahead of the attacks, Hezbollah said yesterday it was in a “new phase” of confrontation and that it had fired rockets at Israeli military sites in retaliation for earlier Israeli strikes. The commander of an elite Hezbollah unit was killed in one such attack on southern Beirut on Friday.
- The cross-border violence follows a deadly string of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon, which Hezbollah has blamed on Israel. Those blasts last week killed at least 39 people and wounded nearly 3,000.
