It has stoked fears that the conflict between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is widening and could destabilise the Middle East.

Families that fled southern Lebanon flocked to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.

Issa Baydoun fled the village of Shihine when it was bombed and drove to Beirut with his extended family. They slept in vehicles on the side of the road because the shelters were full.

“We struggled a lot on the road just to get here,” said Baydoun, who rejected Israel’s contention that it hit only military targets. “We evacuated our homes because Israel is targeting civilians and attacking them.”

Volunteers cooked meals for displaced families at an empty Beirut petrol station that first became a hub for relief after a devastating port explosion in 2020.

Asked about the duration of Israel’s operations in Lebanon, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a news conference that it aims to keep them “as short as possible, that’s why we’re attacking with great force. At the same time, we must be prepared for it to take longer”.

The military says it will do “whatever is necessary” to push Hezbollah away from Lebanon’s border with Israel.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike in a southern Beirut suburb, an area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The country’s National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-storey apartment building.

The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed in the Bekaa region, while a cleaner under contract was killed in a strike in the south.

Hezbollah said its missile attacks on Tuesday targeted eight sites in Israel, including an explosives factory in Zichron Yaakov, 60 kilometres from the border. It fired 300 rockets, injuring six soldiers and civilians, most of them lightly, according to Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman.

On Tuesday, mourners carried 11 bodies through the streets of the Lebanese village of Saksakieh, some 40 kilometres north of the Lebanon-Israel border, including those of four women, an infant and a seven-year-old girl. All were killed in Israel’s bombardment of the village on Monday.

Some of the bodies were draped in Hezbollah flags, others wrapped in black clothes. A wreath of flowers was placed on top of the smallest one.

Mohammad Halal, father of seven-year-old Joury Halal, said his daughter was an “innocent child martyr”.

“She is a martyr for the sake of the south and Palestine,” Halal said and defiantly stated his allegiance to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border before this week’s escalation. Israel has vowed to return its citizens to their evacuated homes in the north, while Hezbollah has said it will keep up its rocket attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli military says it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion but is prepared for one. It has moved thousands of troops who had been serving in Gaza to the northern border. It says Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including some capable of striking anywhere in Israel, and that the group has fired some 9000 rockets and drones since last October.

Reuters, AP

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