Lebanon Health Minister: ‘Majority, If Not All’ of 558
Killed by Israel Were Civilians
Experts say the scale of the Israeli bombardment in
Lebanon on Monday is unprecedented in 21st-century conflicts
by Dave DeCamp September 24, 2024
Lebanese Health Minister Dr. Firass Abiad told The
New York Times on
Tuesday that the “overwhelming majority, if not all,” of the people
killed and wounded by Israel’s bombardment in Lebanon on Monday were civilians.
The death toll from Lebanon’s Health Ministry puts the
number of killed by the Monday bombing at 558, which includes 50 children and
94 women. Nearly 2,000 were wounded in the attack.
The Times notes that Lebanon’s Health
Ministry’s figures have historically been viewed as reliable. The ministry is
not run by Hezbollah but is overseen by the Lebanese government and collects
its data using an emergency operations center that gathers casualty figures
from private and state-run hospitals.
Israel targeted residential areas of
southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, claiming Hezbollah missiles were
being hidden inside houses. The Israeli military said that it hit more than
1,600 targets, and experts say it’s one of the heaviest single-day bombings in
modern warfare. The toll in Israel’s bombardment is about half of the toll for
the entire 2006 Lebanon War, which lasted 34 days.
“Prior to the Gaza war, munitions deployed with this
intensity and with this frequency would have been almost unheard-of,” Emily
Tripp, director of the monitoring group Airwars, told the Times.
“There is no comparison in terms of death toll or munitions use with previous
21st-century air campaigns of this nature, as far as we know.”
The US supported the Israeli bombardment despite previously claiming it opposed escalation and is sending more troops to the region as a show of support. Israeli strikes continue to hit Lebanon on Tuesday, and Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in response.
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