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efforts, underlining Washington’s unwillingness to use its military aid as leverage for a ceasefire.

The Zionist military said it struck about 75 targets in the eastern Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon, Hezbollah bastions that have seen a huge exodus of civilians fleeing their homes in recent days. A strike on the town of Yunin near Baalbek killed at least 20 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, with the official National News Agency describing the bombing of the area as “the most violent” of recent days. “It was indescribable, it was one of the worst nights we’ve lived through,” said Fadia Rafic Yaghi, 70, who owns a shop in Baalbek.

For the fourth time this week, the Zionist military conducted a strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, which the Zionist military said killed the head of the group’s drone unit. The Lebanese health ministry said two people were killed in the strike. It said 60 people had been killed nationwide over the previous 24 hours, among 1,540 killed since hostilities between the Zionist entity and Hezbollah began last October.

The Zionist military said two barrages of 40 to 45 rockets each had been fired from Lebanon into the Zionist entity on Thursday, with many of them intercepted and no reports of casualties. Hezbollah said the first barrage targeted defense industry complexes near the port city of Haifa, while the second targeted the northern town of Safed. The Zionist military said Hezbollah positions along the border with Syria were among its latest targets. Zionist military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive, according to an army statement. Zionist strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday — by far the deadliest day of violence in Lebanon not just in the latest escalation, but since the 1975-1990 civil war.

According to the UN, Zionist bombardment of Lebanon had by Wednesday forced 90,000 people to flee their homes in traditional Hezbollah strongholds to safer areas elsewhere in the tiny Mediterranean country. Lebanon’s disaster management unit said more than 31,000 had fled to neighboring Syria. A 19-year-old woman who fled from south Lebanon to Beirut said a temporary halt in the violence would not be enough. “What we want is to be able to go back home for good, with guarantees,” Rayan Mustafa said.

In Beirut, thousands of Lebanese have sought shelter in schools. In one, women could be seen leaning out of classroom windows, smoking cigarettes or airing out foam mattresses they had slept on this week. Aid organizations were distributing clothes and food, and checking on medications needed by elderly people who had fled too quickly to bring prescriptions with them.

Hassan Slim, who left his southern Lebanon home seeking safety in war-battered Syria, said: “We didn’t think the situation would degenerate so quickly. “Now war is at our doorstep and we have to flee.” Neighboring countries are worried about the safety of their citizens in Lebanon. Turkey is making preparations for possible evacuation of its citizens and foreign nationals from Lebanon, a Turkish defense ministry source said. — Agencies