182 killed, over 700 injured in Israeli strikes

Beirut : Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on Monday killed 182 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, in by far the deadliest cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on October 7.

War began when Palestinian group Hamas carried out the worst-ever attack on Israel, with Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups around the region drawn into the violence.

On Monday, Israel said it had hit more than 300 Hezbollah sites with dozens of strikes, while Hezbollah said it had targeted three sites in northern Israel.

"Israeli enemy strikes on southern towns and villages since this morning" have killed "182 people and wounded 727 others", the health ministry said, with children, women and health workers among the casualties.

World powers have implored Israel and Hezbollah to pull back from the brink of all-out war, with the focus of violence shifting sharply in recent days from Israel's southern front with Gaza to its northern border with Lebanon. "We sleep and wake up to bombardment... that's what our life has become," said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar.