A growing toll.
The number of people killed by Israel in southern Lebanon rose to 200 on Monday, including 146 Hezbollah fighters, more than three months after the start of the escalation on the border between the two countries, according to an AFP tally .
Since the attack by Palestinian Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, there have been daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
The pro-Iranian Islamist movement announced the death of three fighters “on the road to Jerusalem” on Monday, an expression designating its fighters killed by Israeli fire, bringing the number of deaths to 202, according to an AFP count.
The count is based on press releases from Hezbollah and other allied groups, including Palestinian factions, as well as official and civilian sources.
Fighters and civilians
Among the dead are 25 civilians, including three journalists, as well as two rescue workers, a Lebanese army soldier and 20 fighters split equally between Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad.
This toll does not include Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, killed with six other leaders and executives of the movement during an airstrike attributed to Israel in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah has also announced the death of 16 fighters in Syria, killed by Israel.
In Israel, authorities announced the deaths of nine soldiers and six civilians.
In addition, airstrikes and artillery fire targeted Lebanese border villages on Monday.
A high school was damaged in Taybeh, near the Israeli border, the official Lebanese news agency (ANI) said.
Hezbollah, for its part, declared that it had targeted Israeli army positions.
This movement regularly claims to target Israeli army positions on the border, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel responds by bombing Hezbollah “infrastructure” and fighters in border areas.
Also read: Israel-Hezbollah: a war on the Lebanese border ever closer?
In its latest report, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has displaced more than 83,000 people in Lebanon, mainly in border areas.
In recent weeks, Israel has been accused of carrying out several targeted strikes against officials from Iran and its allies in Syria and Lebanon, who support Hamas, fueling fears of a widening conflict.