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In a scene that brought back painful memories for the Lebanese, long lines of cars lined up on the highways heading north on Monday after intense Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon forced families to leave. Mothers and fathers hugged their children, carrying their belongings in bags on the roofs of cars, while black smoke rose behind them.
Countless cars, vans and pickup trucks were loaded with luggage and crammed with passengers. Some vehicles carried several generations of a family. Other families fled quickly, taking only the bare necessities they had gathered as bombs fell overhead.
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the border since the war in Gaza began last year, but Israel has rapidly intensified its military campaign over the past week.
As the shelling escalated to other parts of Lebanon on Monday, residents received pre-recorded phone calls from the Israeli military ordering them to leave their homes for their own safety.
Bloody day
Lebanon’s health ministry said 356 people had been killed in the shelling and 1,246 wounded since the morning, with an official saying it was the deadliest day in the country since the end of the civil war in 1990.
For its part, Israel announced that it had struck about 800 targets linked to Hezbollah and that the buildings it struck contained weapons belonging to the group. Some people saw the destruction up close.
