HIBAPRESS – Agencies
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 40 people had been killed and 246 others injured since dawn on Monday due to Israeli strikes.
The United Nations also announced on Tuesday that at least 31,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the bombing and Israeli raids on various areas, especially in the south of the country and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Babar Baloch, the spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said at a press conference in Geneva: "Large displacement operations have been reported in several parts of southern Lebanon, in the Bekaa region and the southern suburbs of Beirut, after Israel issued evacuation warnings to the residents of more than 53 Lebanese villages and carried out intensive air raids" on the mentioned areas. He added: "Estimates as of yesterday (Monday), indicate that about 31,000 people at the very least have been housed and registered in collective shelters. Many more slept in their cars on the side of the road." For his part, Samer Abdel Jaber, the Regional Director of the World Food Programme, a United Nations agency, said in a statement to journalists in Cairo that the number of displaced people would increase significantly. Israel has been launching an intensive bombing campaign on Lebanon since Monday, declaring that it is targeting Hezbollah in response to strikes it carried out on Israeli territory.
