Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon escalate in biggest attack since Oct. 7

This story was updated to add new information.

WASHINGTON ? Explosions boomed across Lebanon on Monday as the Israeli army carried out its most widespread attacks on Lebanon in almost a year, killing nearly 500 people and wounding more than 1,600, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The back-and-forth airstrikes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated dramatically in the past week after pagers and walkie-talkies used by the militant group exploded throughout Lebanon, killing 37 and injuring more than 2,700, in an Israeli-linked attack.

The bombings fueled fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which has fired increasingly on Israel over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Pentagon said it was sending more personnel to the region.

"We are extremely concerned, deeply worried about the escalation in Lebanon," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.

"The attacks that we saw on the communication devices, the pagers, followed by rocket attacks and rocket fire being exchanged on both sides ... marks a real escalation," she said.

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Who was targeted?

Widespread airstrikes on Monday rained down from Lebanon's southern border to the country's north, near Syria. A Hezbollah-linked TV station reported Israeli warplanes struck towns near the eastern Bekaa Valley and northern Hermel. Video footage posted to social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising over bulidings.

The death toll in Lebanon on Monday rapidly climbed to nearly 500, including 35 children, Lebanese authorities said.

Israel's military said it had struck more than 300 Hezbollah targets.

"On this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a period of 20 years since the second Lebanon War is in fact being destroyed by the IDF," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galland said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.

An Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs Monday evening targeted senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki, head of the group's southern front, a security source told Reuters. It was unclear if Karaki survived.

A court in Azerbaijan found Karaki and another Hezbollah operative guilty in 2009 of plotting attacks on the Israeli and U.S. embassies in the capital, Baku. They were sentenced to 15 years in prison each, but it's unclear how much time the defendants served.

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Did people receive warning calls?

As explosions sounded, people from southern Lebanon to Beirut received warning calls from Israel to immediately evacuate from any Hezbollah posts. A Beirut resident living near the Saudi embassy told Reuters they received a 30 to 40 second call on their landline.

"They were freaking out, I am freaking out as well because we thought somehow the area we live in is safe because we’re surrounded by ambassadors," the person, who was not named, said.

Ziad Makary, Lebanon's information minister, said on X that his ministry had received a warning call, deeming it "psychological warfare" and "intimidation." The Ministry of Information refused to evacuate and was carrying on work as usual, Makary wrote.

The head of a Lebanese telecoms operator told Reuters on Monday that people across the country received more than 80,000 suspected Israeli calls ordering them to evacuate.

Biden 'paralyzed' as war widens

Ahead of a White House meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, President Joe Biden said he was working to tamp down the violence.

"I continue to be in contact with our counterparts and we're working to deescalate in a way that allows people to return home safely," Biden said.

Biden and other world leaders have long warned that failure to win a cease-fire in Gaza could lead to a wider war. Talks to end the fighting and return scores of surviving hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 were on life support Monday as Israeli strikes rained on Lebanon.

"For 11 months the Biden administration said this is the red line ? they didn't want the war to leave Gaza," said Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University. "This is the largest single-day death toll in Lebanon since the darkest days of the (1975-1990) civil war."

"It is now a wider war by every definition," Bazzi said. "Biden is paralyzed."

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What did Israel say?

Israel Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel launched the strikes "following indications that Hezbollah was preparing to fire towards Israeli territory."

The calls to Lebanese residents' phones, Hagari said, were "an advance warning for your own safety and the safety of your family."

"Hezbollah is endangering you and your families," he said.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the airstrikes were targeting homes where "Hezbollah hid weapons."

Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, said in a video that Israel was "deepening" its attacks on Lebanon. "The actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes," he said.

Speaking to CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Hezbollah's near-daily attacks on Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war had forced 100,000 Israelis from their homes.

Gallant said he had briefed U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the latest strikes.

Austin "expressed his support for Israel's right to defend itself... and stressed the importance of finding a path to a diplomatic solution," Pentagon Press Secretary Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

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How did Hezbollah respond?

Hezbollah said on Monday it had launched dozens of rockets towards Israeli military posts in retaliation.

The group launched the attack "in support of our defiant Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip" and as a response to the "brutal Israeli massacre" when the pagers and walkie-talkies exploded, according to the statement.

Israel's military said it identified approximately 35 projectiles crossing into Israeli territory from Lebanon. Sirens sounded throughout northern Israel, it said.

What led up to the airstrikes on Monday?

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah surged last week after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded throughout Lebanon for two days in a row in an attack believed to be Israel's work. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

In the past week, airstrikes have reached the farthest into both countries since Hamas' surprise attack on Israel last October triggered the largest escalation in the Israel-Hamas conflict in decades.

On Friday, an Israeli air strike in Beirut killed four senior Hezbollah commanders.

Israel launched another volley of strikes on Sunday in response to at least 150 Hezbollah rockets, cruise missiles, and UAVs that struck the northern Israeli city of Haifa and the Jezreel Valley, forcing schools to shut down and hospitals to move patients to secured areas.

"Life has been shattered in our northern border. I don't think any American would have accepted it as a kind of a status quo situation in the United States," Herzog said.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lebanon says 274 killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah