The Israeli military has carried out attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut over the past 24 hours. The targets are said to be facilities, including command centers, used by the Iran-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah.
The attacks were preceded by evacuation orders for an area with hundreds of thousands of residents. Roads out of the capital were filled with vehicles and pedestrians as thousands of people fled in panic. The country's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that the mass exodus could create a humanitarian disaster, according to AFP.
The humanitarian and political consequences of this displacement could be unprecedented, he told foreign ambassadors.
In addition to the Beirut area, Israel is primarily targeting the southern and eastern parts of Lebanon.
Millions could be displaced
Israel's evacuation orders also include hundreds of villages. The number of people now at risk of displacement is potentially over a million, the Norwegian Refugee Council writes in a press release.
"Families who had barely begun to rebuild their lives are now forced to flee again," said Maureen Philippon, country director for the organization in Lebanon, in a statement.
The death toll from this week's Israeli attacks is rising. At least 217 people have been killed and 798 injured, according to the latest update from Lebanon's health ministry, AFP reports.
According to the Israeli military, over 500 targets in Lebanon have been hit since the offensive began at the start of the week. Over 70 Hezbollah members have reportedly been killed.
Information about UN soldiers
According to the same statement, Hezbollah has fired around 70 rockets at Israel in the past 24 hours. In one of the attacks, five Israeli soldiers were seriously injured, while three more soldiers were slightly injured.
Several Ghanaian UN soldiers were reportedly injured when their base was hit in southern Lebanon on Friday, the state-controlled Lebanese news agency NNA reported. It is unclear who was behind the as-yet-unconfirmed attack.
Lebanon was drawn into the conflict on Monday night, when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, which quickly responded with an extensive bombardment.
