Israel strikes Lebanon’s east, killing one: security source

Baalbek, Lebanon – AFP

Israeli air strikes near Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek killed one person on Monday, a security source said, in the second raid in the region since cross-border hostilities in October last year.

Since October 8, the day Israel launched its ongoing war on Gaza, Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire.

Strikes have largely remained confined to border regions, but several have hit Hezbollah positions further north in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown conflict.

“Israeli aircraft targeted a former Hezbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital,” a security source told AFP, adding that Israel “conducted another raid on a warehouse west of Baalbek”.

The strikes killed one person and injured six others, he added.

The governor of the Baalbek-Hermel region, Bachir Khodr, also said a man had been killed in the strikes near Baalbek in a post on social media platform X.

Another security official confirmed the strikes, without mentioning casualties.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli air strikes on two locations, including the strike on the warehouse.

The NNA also reported Israeli raids “targeting a residential building in the town of Ansar… south of Baalbek”.

“Fire and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted location,” the NNA added.

The Israeli military later confirmed its jets had hit two sites belonging to “Hezbollah’s aerial forces”.

“The strikes were in retaliation to Hezbollah aircraft attacks launched towards the Golan Heights over recent days,” it added.

The city of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley is a Hezbollah bastion, bordering Syria.

On February 26, Israeli strikes targeted Baalbek, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the border, killing two Hezbollah members in the deepest such raid into Lebanese territory since the hostilities began.

Hezbollah has repeatedly said that it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a cease-fire in Gaza.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said recently that any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.

Since the start of the war on Gaza by Israel, at least 316 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also 53 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed.