Death toll continues to climb in Lebanon during Israeli invasion
Officials in Lebanon say more than 1,200 people have been killed over the past four weeks. The toll includes 124 children with more than 3,500 people wounded, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
On Saturday and Sunday alone, 49 people were killed including 10 rescue workers and three journalists.
Fears continue to rise of more deaths after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is “determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north”.
Hezbollah “still has residual capability to fire rockets at us”, he said.
Netanyahu orders expansion of Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has ordered the expansion of Israel’s security buffer zone in southern Lebanon with the aim of repelling Lebanese cross-border attacks.
“In Lebanon, I have now instructed to further expand the existing security belt, in order to finally thwart the threat of invasion and to keep the anti-tank missile fire away from our border,” he said in a video statement from the Israeli military’s Northern Command.
In recent weeks, Israel has pushed further into southern Lebanon. Israeli forces are occupying the land south of the Litani River, an area it has called on Lebanese civilians to evacuate.
The Israeli military has blown up several bridges over the river – which bisects Lebanon – over the past days, as part of a broader assault in the south.
On Friday, human rights workers warned Israeli forces’ demolition of crossings through the river will cut off tens of thousands of residents in southern Lebanon from “essential lifelines,” as the rate of killings, destruction and displacement across the country spiraled.
