ISTANBUL

The death toll from Israel's onslaught on Lebanon since Oct. 8 last year has surged to 2,574, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Wednesday.

A ministry statement said 28 people were killed and 139 wounded in Israeli attacks Tuesday across Lebanon, raising the number of injured to over 12,000.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, displacing more than 1.34 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israeli forces have killed nearly 42,800 people, most of them women and children, since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East is on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, on Oct. 1 it expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio