Lebanon endures deadliest day since 2006 as Israeli strikes claim over 270 lives

Israeli strikes killed over 270 Lebanese in the deadliest assault since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military has warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes in preparation for an intensified air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the southern region, with the main highway out of Sidon packed with cars heading toward Beirut in the largest exodus since the 2006 conflict. Over 1,000 people were injured in the strikes, a shocking toll in a single day for a nation still recovering from a deadly attack on communication systems last week.

Since Monday morning, Israeli fighter jets have struck more than 800 Hezbollah-affiliated targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, according to the Israeli military.

The death toll from the Israeli strikes has now exceeded that of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed at least 218 people and injured over 6,000 when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated.

Israeli officials warned that Hezbollah was storing thousands of long-range rockets in civilian homes across Lebanon. Residents received text messages and automated calls urging them to move away from the group's weapons caches. These evacuation warnings, the first in nearly a year of intensifying conflict, followed a heavy exchange of fire on Sunday. In retaliation for strikes that killed a top commander and dozens of fighters, Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles, and drones into northern Israel.

A week of intensifying violence—including exploding pagers, a major Israeli strike in Beirut, and Hezbollah attacks deep inside Israel—has brought both sides closer to full-scale war than they have been in years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I promised we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north –- and that is exactly what we are doing."

Hezbollah began attacking Israeli troops shortly after Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7, in a show of support for its Palestinian ally. Israel retaliated with missile and artillery strikes, resulting in regular exchanges of fire. The ongoing conflict has led to the evacuation of approximately 150,000 people on both sides of the border and caused significant damage to border areas.