The death toll from Israel's strikes on Lebanon has risen to 492 people

As a result of Israeli strikes on Lebanon at least 492 people were killed. This was reported by Reuters on September 23, citing the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

"Lebanon's health ministry said at least 492 people were killed, including 24 children and 42 women, and 1,645 were wounded," the publication said.

Such violence is the highest in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 Civil War, a Lebanese official told the agency.

Winged phase: Hezbollah announces new phase of fight against Israel

How the nature of the confrontation between the Lebanese movement and the IDF will change

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched massive strikes on Shiite Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. One of them was struck in Beirut. The Israeli General Staff indicated that the country was conducting a pre-emptive operation to destroy the infrastructure of the Shiite organization. Earlier it was reported that the strikes killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women. 1,246 people were injured.

Before that, on September 17 and 18, two waves of explosions of pagers and other communication devices of Hezbollah members took place in Lebanon. It was reported that at least 37 people were killed then and about 3 thousand were injured. The country's authorities and Hezbollah representatives 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.