Israel issues chilling ultimatum to Hezbollah as blitz kills more than 270 & thousands flee Lebanon border battlefield
ISRAEL has given Hezbollah a chilling ultimatum vowing to “hit them hard” with continued deadly strikes until they agree to a ceasefire.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have ramped up their attacks with a huge barrage of tactical strikes on Lebanon in the past 10 days as thousands begin to flee the war-torn border.
Earlier today bombs were launched in the south by the Israeli military with 274 reportedly killed and over 1,000 injured in the precision assaults.
Dramatic footage online showed thousands of civilians escaping their homes and driving towards safety as the bombs started to rain down.
Those fleeing were told to head towards Beirut leaving the main highway into the capital packed with terrified families.
Huge traffic jams quickly piled up with the roads at a stand still for miles in several other major cities in the south of Lebanon.
This is the latest of the IDF’s “widespread” strikes in the south of Lebanon as they continue to hunt Hezbollah chiefs.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, has backed the attacks as he blasted Hezbollah saying “whoever hurts us, we will hurt him more”.
Despite Israel’s promise to keep up their attacks fresh reports say they are now willing to move towards the negotiating table.
An Israeli official reportedly told The Times of Israel: “We are going to hit them hard, but we will stop if they decide it’s time to move toward negotiations.”
The Middle East continues to teeter on the edge of exploding into a much wider regional conflict with Lebanon’s prime minister accusing Israel of waging “a war of extermination”.
Hezbollah has also warned Israel will face an “open-ended battle of reckoning” on the border.
This has prompted the US to deploy additional troops out to the Middle East amid the growing fears, say the Pentagon.
They are yet to provide any more details on how many or where the troops will be stationed.
The US currently has around 40,000 troops in the region.
It comes after today’s missile barrage that targeted homes in Lebanon where the IDF say Hezbollah are using to hide.
The Israeli Air Force struck more than 300 targets by 3pm this afternoon, the IDF said.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military was striking “infrastructure that Hezbollah built up for years”.
Israeli officials warned of the “huge attack” this afternoon as it launched chilling warnings to locals.
They informed civilians through hacked radio broadcasts, text messages, and phone calls about the strikes – giving them two hours to get away from Iran‘s proxy.
Hagari says some civilians in one part of Lebanon are being used as human shields.
The text message read, according to local media: “If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice.”
Lebanon’s information minister hit back at the life-saving alerts by labelling them a tactic of “psychological war implemented by the enemy”.
A whopping 160,000 Lebanese have fled their homes on the border since the back and forth conflict began.
Hezbollah have also reportedly killed 26 civilians and 20 soldiers who have tried to escape.
Many of these are believed to include the 80,000 Israelis they forced to head south to escape their rockets.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Israeli-Lebanon border in parallel with the war Israel has waged in Gaza against Hamas after October 7.
Hezbollah has named 497 members killed by Israel during the ongoing fighting since October, including troops lost during this week’s pager and walkie-talkie strike.
The group was said to be “rudderless” and in disarray” after all its fighters killed and losing one means of communication.
Recent attacks have even placed the British military on high alert to launch an emergency evacuation for those trapped in Lebanon with two ships also on standby in the region.
A defence source told The Telegraph the British government “stands prepared” to pull Brits to safety if the situation explodes.
Foreign secretary David Lammy outlined the preparations in an emergency Cobra meeting.
He warned Brits living in Lebanon to leave immediately while “commercial options remain”.
Pager and walkie-talkie strike
The spike in fighting follows the coordinated pager and walkie-talkie blitz last week with Israel sabotaging communications devices.
The attacks were aimed at Hezbollah and hit the terror group’s fighters and civilians in Lebanon and Syria.
The strikes, which hit Tuesday and Wednesday, killed at least 39 and left thousands more injured.
Doctors in Lebanon have been overwhelmed by casualties after two waves of blasts – with many left blinded.
Skilled physicians say they have never had to surgically remove more eyes before as Hezbollah’s boss labelled the strikes a possible “declaration of war” from Israel.
One of those injured was the Iranian envoy to the country who has reportedly lost an eye.
Hezbollah’s boss Hassan Nasrallah said the group intends to seek revenge for the attacks that “crossed over all the red lines” and will not stop until the war in Gaza ends.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said he “condemned the terrorist act of the Zionist regime… as an example of mass murder”.
Israel reportedly planted the explosives inside the pagers in a years’ long operation that involved firms in Taiwan and Hungary.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has ordered all members to stop using any types of communication devices, Reuters reports.