The death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon exceeds 350 people

More than 350 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday, September 23, as a result of strikes of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the southern territories of the country. This is reported by the Associated Press agency with reference to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

According to updated data, the strikes claimed the lives of 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women. 1246 people were wounded.

Such a number of victims journalists called staggering. It is noted that it became the highest since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement "Hezbollah" in 2006.

Prior to that, 274 dead and 1,024 wounded were reported in strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday.

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Earlier in the day, the IDF launched massive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. One of them was carried out on Beirut. The Israeli General Staff indicated that the country was conducting a pre-emptive operation to destroy the Shiite organization's infrastructure.

Before that, on September 17 and 18, there were two waves of explosions of pagers and other communication devices of Hezbollah members in Lebanon. It was reported that at least 37 people were killed and about 3,000 injured. The country's authorities and representatives of Hezbollah blamed Israel for the incident.

Soon in Tel Aviv announced the transfer of forces to the northern front. The IDF began strikes on Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon, and they continued in the following days. The movement itself announced a new phase of confrontation with Israel and also launched a number of retaliatory rocket attacks. Because of this, the Israeli authorities imposed a special state of emergency first in the north of the country and then throughout its entire territory.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, invaded the border areas in the south of the country and seized hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.