Israel says it has hit 1,300 targets in escalating conflict with Hezbollah, as tens of thousands flee their homes

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At least 356 people have been killed and 1,246 injured, Lebanon’s health ministry has said, after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on alleged Hezbollah targets that left the country with its highest daily death toll since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Tens of thousands of people fled from south Lebanese towns and villages along the main road towards the capital, Beirut, in Israel’s most intense barrage in nearly a year of cross-border clashes, as sirens were also heard in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The Lebanese health ministry said “children, women and paramedics” were among the casualties.