(NewsNation) — More than 270 people were killed in Lebanon after Israeli airstrikes on Monday, making it the deadliest day for the country since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
A small number of U.S. troops have now been deployed to the Middle East in response to the violence, which has raised people’s fears of a greater regional war. The United States already has an aircraft carrier in the region, but at this time, officials have no plan to send another one.
Officials from the Biden administration as well as lawmakers have been worried for weeks now about the situation in the area escalating.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut Monday that the Israeli military’s attacks hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. Government officials ordered schools and universities to close across most of Lebanon and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.
In a recorded message Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed calls to evacuate, saying that once the operation is finished, they could come back to their homes.
“I have a message for the people of Lebanon,” he said. “Israel’s war is not with you, it’s with Hezbollah.”
However, Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, said in a statement his office had received one of these messages, telling people to leave the building.
These warnings come “in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy,” Makary said, telling people “not to give the matter more attention than it deserves.”
Israeli military officials, claiming they are going after Hezbollah weapons sites, announced the strikes hit 800 targets. Some of these strikes, according to the Associated Press, struck residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.
On Sunday, Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes last week that killed a top commander and fighters, as well as dozens of civilians including women and children. It is not clear whether there have been any deaths or injuries resulting from this attack.
Last week, thousands of communications devices such as pagers exploded in different parts of Lebanon as part of an attack widely believed to be carried out by Israel. These device explosions killed 39 people and wounded nearly 3,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
