Thousands have also been wounded. Dr Wael Mroueh, the head of the Jabal Amel University Hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, told Reuters he had seen terrible injuries.
“Victims are coming without lower extremities … [needing a] craniotomy, with open wounds and all those things together. The victim is coming torn up and in bad shape,” Mroueh said.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel’s military had destroyed two additional bridges over the Litani that he said Hezbollah had used to smuggle weapons and operatives south.
Katz described the action as “a clear message to the Lebanese government: the State of Israel will not allow such a reality”.
Fears are growing in Lebanon that cutting off southern Lebanon from the rest of the country could pave the way for a large-scale Israeli military operation into Lebanese territory.
The escalation in central Beirut, where Israel targeted four buildings in eight hours, followed what Hezbollah described as a large rocket attack against Israel late on Tuesday. Some 100 rockets were fired, Lebanese security sources said.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Wednesday that it had noted “heavy exchanges of fire, intensified air and ground activity, and increased presence of Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory” overnight.
Reuters