Death toll rises to 492 as Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes
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The death toll from Israeli strikes across Lebanon has risen to 492, the Lebanese health ministry has said.
The Israeli military has warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
The death toll surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.
In Beirut and beyond, schools were quickly repurposed to receive the newly displaced as volunteers scrambled to gather water, medicine and mattresses.
In the coastal city of Sidon, people seeking shelter streamed into schools that had no mattresses to sleep on yet. Many waited on sidewalks outside.
Ramzieh Dawi had arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby.
“These are the only things I brought,” she said, gesturing at the three tote bags she carried.
Fatima Chehab, who came with her three daughters from the area of Nabatieh, said her family had been displaced twice in quick succession.
“We first fled to stay with my brother in a nearby area, and then they bombed three places next to his house,” she said.