'Vacate Beqaa Valley In Two Hours': Israel's Ultimatum To Civilians In Lebanon

Israel-Hezbollah War: Israel has given a 2-hour deadline to Beqaa residents to vacate the city as it plans to launch a major offensive against Hezbollah targeting its ammunition sites in Southern and Eastern Lebanon. The warning comes after a killer strike earlier today killed over 180 and injured over 700.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting. More than 700 other people were wounded in the strikes.

Israel Targets 300 Sites in Lebanon 

The Israeli military announced that it hit some 300 targets Monday, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.

The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the Beqaa Valley, along Lebanon’s eastern border. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the Beqaa Valley, which runs along the Lebanese-Syrian border, and it is where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said residents of the valley must immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli military post in Galilee. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.

As Israel carried out the attacks, Israeli authorities reported a series of air-raid sirens in northern Israel warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.

Earlier Monday, Israel issued a broad warning urging residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate from homes and other buildings where it claimed Hezbollah has stored weapons.

With inputs from AP