ISRAELI air strikes killed at least 1,268 people in Lebanon last month, including more than 125 children, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said today.

The figures come as a new wave of Israeli attacks was reported on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The ministry’s Emergency Operations Centre said at least 21 people had been killed and another 70 wounded during Israeli attacks since Tuesday.

The Israeli military offensive, which began soon after its joint illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28, has concentrated on southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahye.

More than one million people have been “displaced” by the bombings and ground incursions. Many experts have described this as ethnic cleansing, a war crime.

Israel’s far-right coalition government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has framed the escalation as a response to cross‑border fire by resistance group Hezbollah, which opened a front in solidarity with Palestinians after the Gaza genocide began in October 2023.

Beyond territorial objectives, the Israeli campaign in Lebanon has adopted what analysts describe as a policy of collective punishment, systematically destroying residential buildings, blocking strategic roads, and striking civilian infrastructure.