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full screen Smoke from one of the many airstrikes against Lebanon Israel has carried out in the past week. Photo: Hussein Malla/AP/TT
A week of escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Islamist Hezbollah in Lebanon has no comparison in the long history of violence between the two warring parties.
Monday 16 September
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that Israel’s war aims are being extended to the north: “The Security Policy Council has updated the war aims this evening so that they now include the following section: A safe return of residents of the north to their homes”. At the same time, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warns an American envoy about an imminent military intervention in Lebanon.
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Tuesday 17 September
In the afternoon, hundreds of pagers start ringing, then explode, around Lebanon and Syria. Over 2,000 people are injured and at least 12 people are killed, including two children. Many of those targeted were members of Hezbollah. A few grams of stuffed explosives are believed to have caused the explosions.
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Wednesday 18 September
A new coordinated attack on transmitter equipment – walkie-talkies – used by Hezbollah members. At least 20 people are killed when the devices explode, including at a funeral.
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Thursday 19 September
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks from a secret location. He states that the Iran-backed movement has “endured a serious and cruel blow”. As Nasrallah delivers his speech, Israeli warplanes fly low over Beirut. Israel conducts several airstrikes against Hezbollah launch pads.
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Friday 20 September
Israeli air raids hit a residential building in al-Dahiya in Beirut. The high-rise is razed to the ground, at least 45 people are killed, including several children, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. Commander Ibrahim Aqil of Hezbollah’s military branch Radwan is killed.
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Saturday 20 September
Extensive Israeli airstrikes against targets in southern Lebanon. Israeli military says 400 Hezbollah targets hit. Hezbollah fires robots at northern Israel, and air raid sirens sound in about 70 Israeli cities. Most of the robots are shot down.
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Sunday 21 September
Hezbollah fires over 100 robots and rockets and drones at Israel, hitting targets five miles into Israel. It is the first time that Hezbollah robots have searched for targets so far into the country since the terror-labeled Hamas attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
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Monday 22 September
Israeli warplanes attack hundreds of targets in Lebanon. Over 270 people are killed in raids, of which more than 20 are children. Over 800 targets in Lebanon were attacked, according to the Israeli military. Netanyahu warns that “complicated days” lie ahead.
Sources: TT, AFP, AP, The New York Times, Times of Israel, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA.