Israel and Hezbollah exchange strikes as U.S. proposes Lebanon cease-fire

Israel continued to hammer southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley with airstrikes overnight into Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it hit around 75 targets, all of which it said belonged to Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces said “weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists, and terrorist infrastructure” were among the targets hit as the military said it continued its operation in a bid to “dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities” and infrastructure.

Israel’s strikes have had a deadly toll in Lebnaon, with more than 600 people, including dozens of children, killed since Monday, about half the number of people killed over the 34 days of fighting during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, fueling fears of a developing humanitarian crisis in a nation that has been hard hit by economic and political crisis, as well as the impacts of the Port of Beirut explosion and the Covid-19 pandemic.