The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday that the number of victims since the start of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon on October 8 has risen to 2,483, and 11,628 injured, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The Public Health Emergency Operations Center of the ministry revealed in a statement on Monday that Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country on Sunday resulted in the death of 13 people and the injury of 36 others, while in the Nabatieh Governorate, they claimed the lives of 13 and injured 36.
“In the Bekaa Governorate, Israeli airstrikes yesterday caused 9 injuries, while in Mount Lebanon one injury, as a result of the bombardments,” the ministry’s statement said as quoted by NNA.
According to the Ministry of Public Health, the death toll on Sunday alone came to 19 and those injured stood at 98.
However, the death toll excludes the 24 Lebanese killed in the various Israeli airstrikes since early Monday across the country, Anadolu news agency reported.
It also does not include the 13 individuals killed and the 57 wounded in the Israeli airstrike on Monday night at the vicinity of Rafik Hariri University Hospital in the Jnah area in Beirut.
Hochstein’s Visit to Lebanon
The announcement of the striking death toll came on the day the United States President’s envoy Amos Hochstein visited the country and met with Lebanese officials, including acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon.
Hochstein told a press conference in Beirut on Monday that neither Lebanon nor Israel “ever fully implemented resolution 1701, which ‘contributed to the conflict we are witnessing today’,” a report by Axios said on Sunday.
“We are working on a formula that will end the conflict once and for all so that it won’t start again next month or next year,” Hochstein stated.
According to Axios, Berri told Al-Arabiya on Sunday that Hochstein’s visit was “the last chance before the US elections to reach a solution” to the war in Lebanon.
War on Lebanon
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, on October 7, 2023, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah has engaged directly, but relatively in a limited way in the war against the Israeli occupation.
Israel escalated its aggression with the cyber-terror attacks on September 17 and 18, which claimed the lives of at least 37 people including children, and injured around 3000 others.
This went hand in hand with a series of assassinations of Hezbollah leaders, the last of which was that of the Secretary-General of the resistance party Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.
These developments coincided with unprecedented bombings and airstrikes by Israel’s army on different cities across Lebanon particularly in the south, Bekaa and the southern district of Beirut.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on October 22 that 2,483 Lebanese were killed and 11,628 were injured since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon.
The Lebanese Government Emergency Committee announced on October 16 that the number of shelters has reached 1,059 centers, 876 of which stand at maximum capacity.
The Head of the committee, Minister of Environment Nasser Yassin revealed that around “50 thousand families have been displaced to approved shelters, noting that the total number of displaced people exceeds 1.2 million.”
According to the committee, 326,467 Syrians and 124,225 Lebanese crossed into Syrian territory from September 23 to October 14.