Israeli airstrikes hit 1,300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

The Israeli military said it struck about 1,300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after Israel launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets killing 492 people and sending tens of thousands fleeing for safety in Lebanon's deadliest day in decades, according to authorities.

There were many secondary blasts when munitions stored inside buildings exploded, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

He said Israeli strikes hit long-range cruise missiles, heavyweight rockets, short-range rockets and explosive drones.

In response to the strikes, Hezbollah said it launched dozens of missiles at a military base in northern Israel.

Sirens warning of Hezbollah rocket fire sounded across northern Israel, including in the port city of Haifa, and in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the military said.

More attacks were expected in Lebanon.

Hagari said Hezbollah put weaponry inside people's homes, intending to use the arms against civilian targets in Israel.

He added that secondary explosions from Israel's strikes resulted from this weaponry and endangered Lebanese civilians.

Hezbollah has not commented on the assertion that it has hidden weapons in houses, but it has said it does not place military infrastructure near civilians.

Lebanese citizens expressed growing fears of escalation as Israel intensified widespread airstrikes across southern Lebanon.

Israel unleashed its most widespread wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah and warned Lebanese citizens to evacuate areas where the armed group was storing weapons, moving closer to all-out war.

Residents of southern Lebanon received calls from a Lebanese number, ordering them to immediately distance themselves by 1,000 meters from any post used by Hezbollah, according to a reporter in the south who received such a call.

These latest attacks came amid some of the heaviest cross-border exchanges in almost a year of conflict, occurring alongside the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.