by Israeli attacks on Lebanon have now killed more than 3,000 people in the 13 months since fighting broke out between Hezbollah and Israel along the southern Lebanese and northern Israeli borders, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The ministry said late on Monday that 3,002 people have been killed and 13,492 injured since the start of Israel’s “aggression” against Lebanon.
The figures show that among the 3,002 people killed so far, 589 are women and at least 185 children, according to the ministry.
While Israel claims hundreds of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in its attacks, witnesses and independent reports from bombed communities across Lebanon testify to the high number of civilian casualties caused by widespread and indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, said last week that at least one child a day had been killed in Lebanon over the past month.
“At least one child has been killed and 10 injured every day since October 4 this year,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“Thousands of children who survived many months of continuous bombings physically unscathed are now acutely distressed by the violence and chaos around them,” the agency said.
The rising death toll comes as an estimated 1.2 million of Lebanon’s 5.8 million residents have been forcibly evicted from towns, villages and neighborhoods in the capital Beirut, which Israel has repeatedly bombed and continues to issue forced evacuation orders.
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), an average of 400 to 600 people from Lebanon have arrived in Iraq every day over the past week. Most of them are Lebanese, but there has also been an increase in the arrival of Syrians and Palestinians.
At least 28,350 refugees from Lebanon have arrived in the country since the escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in September, the agency said. A majority are hosted in Najaf and Karbala.
Meanwhile, an estimated 472,000 people from Lebanon have entered Syria in recent weeks, UNHCR said on Monday.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), emergency medical services in Lebanon reported 201 attacks last year, resulting in 151 deaths.
At least 212 people have been injured in the violence, which is “hindering rescue and relief efforts and ultimately contributing to high mortality rates,” the WHO said.
In Israel, 72 people have been killed in Hezbollah attacks since October last year, including at least 30 Israeli soldiers killed in fighting with the Lebanese armed group. More than 60,000 people have been driven from their homes in northern Israel.
An end to the fighting seems far away, given the rising number of deaths and destruction of Lebanese infrastructure and civilian property.
On Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of blocking any progress in ceasefire negotiations with Hezbollah.
“Israeli statements and diplomatic signals received by Lebanon confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on tackling murder and destruction,” he said.
The AFP news agency on Monday verified video footage showing massive explosions in a southern Lebanese border village, where a local official said hundreds of houses had been swept away by Israel since last year.
The video, shared widely online, showed more than a dozen simultaneous explosions ripping through Meiss el-Jabal and reducing Lebanese homes to dust.
Similar aerial footage of house demolitions has been captured from several border villages, including Mhaibib and Odaisseh, since Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon in late September, AFP reports.
Houses covering lush hillsides are seen in a cloud of gray dust in the videos circulating widely online.
Israeli forces blew up buildings in at least seven border villages last month, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
Meiss el-Jabal’s video on Monday showed large explosions near an empty hospital in the village, Mayor Abdul-Monhem Choukair said.
“Seventy percent of Meiss el-Jabal has been destroyed,” the mayor said, adding that “the Israeli enemy’s goal is systematic destruction.”
