BAALBEK, Lebanon: Israeli air strikes near Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek Monday killed one person, a security source said, the second raid in the region since cross-border hostilities began after the Israel-Hamas war.
Since October 8, a day after the war in the Gaza Strip began, Hamas’s ally Hezbollah and Israel’s staunch enemy have been engaged in almost daily armed battles.
Attacks have largely been confined to border areas, but several attacks in recent weeks have hit Hezbollah bases in the north of the country, raising fears of a full-scale conflict.
Israeli warplanes targeted a former Hezbollah compound near Dar al-Amal hospital, security sources told media, adding that Israel again attacked a warehouse west of Baalbek.
One person was killed and six others were injured in the air attack.
Bachir Khodr, the governor of the Baalbek-Hermel region, also said in a post on X that a man was killed in an attack near Baalbek.
Another security official confirmed the airstrike without mentioning casualties.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on two locations, including an attack on a warehouse.
NNA also reported that Israeli strikes targeted residential buildings in the town of Ansar, south of Baalbek. It further said that flames and smoke were seen from the location.
The city of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley is the base of Hezbollah on the border with Syria.
On February 26, Israeli airstrikes targeted Baalbek, 100 kilometers from the border, killing two Hezbollah members in the deepest attack on Lebanese soil since the conflict began.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that it will stop attacking Israel only with a ceasefire in Gaza.
However, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant recently said that the ceasefire in Gaza in no way changes Israel’s goal of driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon by force or diplomacy.
