Today, there were 1.1 million tweets from New York alone about the Israeli attack on Lebanon (source: Trends 24).
I opened Facebook and Twitter and didn't see the same attention in posts and tweets from most Arab countries, as if this has become our normal situation! (source: Trends 24).
Today, due to Israeli airstrikes, 274 people were killed, and 1,024 others were injured, including 21 children, 39 women, and medics (source: Al Jazeera).
Israeli Channel 12 reported that the Israeli army struck around 800 targets in various parts of Lebanon, and about 200 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel, most of which were intercepted (Source: Times of Israel).
The head of the Lebanese telecommunications company announced that today, the Lebanese received over 80,000 Israeli phone calls ordering them to immediately evacuate their homes (source: Al Jazeera).
The Lebanese Health Minister announced today that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced from southern Lebanon to Beirut, just like what happened in Gaza, but in the opposite direction (source: Axios).
According to The Washington Post, today is one of the deadliest days in Lebanon since the 2006 war due to continuous bombing throughout the day targeting purely civilian areas (source: The Washington Post).
Main roads and side streets were packed with cars and civilians fleeing the bombing, fearing the expansion of attacks. The Lebanese authorities closed schools and turned them into shelters for citizens (source: The Washington Post).
The Pentagon stated it continues to provide security aid to Israel and announced it sent specialized emergency and planning forces to the Middle East (source: NBC News).
From the command room in the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said that Israel is "on the verge of complex days," explaining that they are at the beginning of a ground operation in Lebanon (Source: Axios).
Hezbollah has a large military arsenal, with 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 reserves, supported by an estimated $700 million annually from Iran (source: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies).
Hezbollah possesses missiles with a range of up to 310 miles, like the Fajr-1 and Shahin-1 missiles, in addition to drones like the Shahed-129, which can cover distances up to 1,240 miles (source: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies).
However, the Israeli Iron Dome is very effective against Hezbollah's air attacks, making retaliation difficult for the people there. Today alone, four senior Hezbollah leaders were assassinated (Abdel Moneim Mahna, Mohammed Saleh, Amin Saad, and Ali Abu Ria) (source: NBC News).
Pray for Lebanon so it doesn't face the same fate as Gaza, and please don't forget to pray and donate to Gaza. The situation has been challenging since the rains in the past two days.