BEIRUT: For two days after Israel and the US unleashed their joint aerial assault on Iran on Saturday, many Lebanese allowed themselves to believe that, for once, their country was the safest place to be in the Middle East.
That all changed on Monday morning, however, when the Iran-backed Hezbollah unleashed a barrage of drones and rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel, “in retaliation for the pure blood of ... Ayatollah Khamenei” and “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”
Israel’s response was as swift as it was predictable. Now Lebanon has joined the long list of countries embroiled in the region’s latest war.
Israeli aircraft quickly struck targets across the country, in the south, where it warned people in more than 50 villages to evacuate, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and in the Bekaa Valley.
Within hours, Lebanon’s National News Agency was reporting that more than 30 people had been killed and dozens more injured.
