DEATHS IN LEBANON AND ISRAEL
Hezbollah began its campaign in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following its attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, the deadliest in Israeli history.
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the war has reached 43,922, a majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Since September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing campaigns in Lebanon primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds, though some strikes have hit areas outside the Iran-backed group’s control.
A strike on Monday on central Beirut killed five people and wounded 31 others, said the health ministry.
The area of the capital that was hit has in recent weeks become home to many who have fled Hezbollah’s main bastion in the southern suburbs.
Israel has also sent ground troops into Lebanon, while Hezbollah has continued to launch projectiles into Israel almost daily.
On Monday, Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired around 100 projectiles into northern Israel, with some intercepted by air defences.
In Shfaram, east of the Haifa area where Hezbollah has regularly claimed attacks, a rocket hit a building and killed a woman, emergency services said.
The building “suffered a direct hit” and 10 people were lightly wounded, paramedics said.
In the suburbs of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, five people were wounded, including one woman in serious condition, after rockets were fired into central Israel, first responders said.
Hezbollah said it launched “attack drones” against “sensitive military points … in the city of Tel Aviv” and shot down an Israeli drone in south Lebanon.
The group said on Tuesday it fired a salvo of rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.
