Smoke rises from a site hit by an airstrike near the town of Ghaziyeh on Lebanon's coast (Photo: Reuters)
Beirut, August 15 (RHC)-- The Lebanese Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli strikes on towns and villages in the southern part of the country following the onset of a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip now stands at nearly 550.
The ministry announced in its latest update published on Wednesday that at least 547 people, including 35 females and 20 children and teenagers, have been killed ever since Israel began its sporadic attacks against Lebanon following the latest Gaza war that began on October 7 last year.
The ministry added that 1,765 people have also been wounded, with over 100,000 internally displaced. The majority of those killed are members of the Hezbollah resistance movement.
This comes a day after Lebanese military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. The sources reported that the two members were killed in an Israeli drone strike on their car on the main road linking the town of Baraachit and the village of Beit Yahoun on Tuesday.
The military sources also stated that the Israeli military launched seven airstrikes on five border towns and villages in southern Lebanon, and targeted 11 towns and villages with 50 shells.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced that its fighters attacked several Israeli military sites, including the Misgav Am, Ramim, and Ruwaisat al-Alam barracks. A state of anticipation and caution prevails in Lebanon following the assassination of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike on a building in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on July 30th. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed retaliation for the act of terror.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched the genocidal war against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group.
The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel while stressing that they are prepared in case it occurs.
Two Israeli wars waged against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 were met with strong resistance from Hezbollah, resulting in the retreat of the regime in both conflicts.
