Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 356 people Monday, including 24 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the Gaza war began.Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year.Israel said it hit about 1,300 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including a ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut.Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third in command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.State media reported new raids in eastern Lebanon, while Hezbollah said it targeted five sites in Israel.In the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, people were seen running for cover when air raid sirens sounded.Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and wounded 1,246 others. Health Minister Firass Abiad said ‘thousands of families’ had been displaced.Explosions near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon sent smoke billowing into the sky.’We sleep and wake up to bombardment… that's what our life has become,’ said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar.The strikes sent hundreds of people fleeing their homes, according to Bilal Kachmar, an official in Tyre.’Hundreds of displaced people rushed’ to a school-turned-shelter in the southern city, he said, with many others ‘camping out in the streets’.AFP correspondents saw rows of cars leaving the nearby city of Sidon.Explosions around the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon triggered flashes of fire and sent smoke billowing into the sky.The education minister said schools in targeted areas would close for two days.The official National News Agency said Lebanese had received phone messages from Israel telling them to ‘quickly evacuate’.Hezbollah, a powerful political and military force in Lebanon, says it is acting in its near-daily battle with Israeli troops along Lebanon's border in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.Hezbollah's deputy chief, Naim Qassem, said the group was in a ‘new phase, namely an open reckoning’ with Israel, and ready for ‘all military possibilities’.They spoke after Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel caused damage in the area of Haifa, a major city on Israel's north coast.On Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of people in northern Israel fled to their bomb shelters as Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets across the border.The attack came after an Israeli air strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold on Friday killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil, along with other commanders and civilians.Last Tuesday and Wednesday, coordinated communications device blasts that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.On Sunday, Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli military production facilities and an air base in the Haifa area with rockets as ‘an initial response’.On Monday the group said it had again fired rockets at military sites near Haifa.’No country can live like this,’ said Ofer Levy, 56, a customs officer, who lives on the edge of Haifa.Since the cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah began in October, tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled their homes.Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nation and world powers to deter what he called Israel's ‘plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns’.US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's main ally and weapons supplier, said his administration was ‘going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out’.Ahead of the annual General Assembly in New York, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned of Lebanon becoming ‘another Gaza’ and said it was ‘clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire’ there.
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