Two Lebanese research centers have established a detailed assessment of the human and material losses suffered by Lebanon since the start of clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on October 8. The official number of deaths stands at 438 people and that of the injured at 275. The head of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berry, presented this document to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné, received this week in Beirut.
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With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
One hundred civilians, 337 combatants Hezbollah and a Lebanese soldier were killed in seven months of clashes on the border between Lebanon And Israel. Among the civilians are three journalists and around twenty rescue workers and paramedics.
Forty-five localities near the border are under daily fire from Israeli aircraft and artillery. Twelve of them suffered considerable destruction, according to the National Center for Scientific Research in the public sector and the International Information Center in the private sector.
Some 1,700 houses were completely razed, 1,500 partially destroyed and 4,100 damaged. The fighting has forced more than 90,000 residents to flee their homes in the border area.
Satellite images viewed by experts from the National Scientific Research Center show that 1,060 hectares went up in smoke under the effect of incendiary munitions and white phosphorus used by the Israeli army. Fifty hectares of olive groves and hundreds of hectares of oak trees were reduced to ashes.
The olive picking season and tobacco harvest were lost this year. The International Information Center estimates total economic losses at $1.6 billion.
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