Overview: Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes pound Lebanon as hostilities escalate

Israel pummeled Lebanon with airstrikes Monday that killed 356 people and left more than 1,200 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry, marking the deadliest day for Lebanon since Israel and the militant group Hezbollah ramped up their exchange of fire nearly a year ago.

In a dramatic escalation, Israel said it struck 1,300 targets in Lebanon, carrying out what an Israeli military spokesman called “extensive, precise strikes.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday vowed that Israel’s military would take “whatever action is necessary” to eliminate the threat across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, said Monday that Israel does not “wait for the threat — we take action before it.”

Israel has increasingly turned its attention in recent days from its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the conflict with Hezbollah, which has been launching near-daily rocket strikes into northern Israel. Hezbollah says it has been carrying out the attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza and will not stop until there is a cease-fire there. Tens of thousands of Israelis under fire have left their homes in the north of the country, and Israel officials have vowed they will make it safe for those residents to return.

Leaders of both Israel and Hezbollah have signaled that the nature of the conflict has in fact shifted.

“I promised we would change the balance of power in the north — that is exactly what we are doing,” Netanyahu said. “We are destroying thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at the cities of Israel and its citizens.”

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said Sunday that the group had entered an “new phase” in its conflict with Israel. Speaking at the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, a top Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike Friday, he promised an “open-ended battle of reckoning.”