ISRAELI STRIKES CAUSE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION DEEP INSIDE LEBANON
▶ Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets across border in response to attacks near north-eastern city of Baalbek
Israel carried out air strikes near the north-eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek yesterday, in its deepest attack into the country’s territory since hostilities erupted with Hezbollah in October.
A security source told The National that Israeli planes had hit a building near Baalbek, about 75km north of Lebanon’s southern border.
Videos shared on social media showed plumes of smoke billowing from the area.
Hezbollah said the strikes killed two of its fighters and injured three.
“Israel’s aggression on Baalbek or any other areas will not remain without response,” Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said.
Shortly after, the Iran-backed militia said it had fired 60 rockets at an Israeli base in retaliation for the attack on Baalbek.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to expand the scope of its conflict with Hezbollah, especially amid growing signs that a ceasefire in Gaza may be nearing.
The Israeli military said it would “continue operating to defend the state of Israel from the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, including in aerial operations above Lebanese territory”.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would increase its attacks against Hezbollah if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
“If a temporary pause is reached in Gaza, we will increase the fire in the north separately, and will continue until the full withdrawal of Hezbollah [from the border] and the return of Israeli citizens to their homes,” he said.
Karim El Mufti, professor of international relations at Sciences Po Paris, told The National that Israel had overlooked the rules of engagement.
“This was a miscalculation from Hezbollah. It has been caught off guard by the Israelis: they did not anticipate that Israel would not abide by the rules of graduated and proportionate response,” he said.
However, he added, Hezbollah cannot “afford to escalate the conflict” amid the political and financial crisis in Lebanon. The militia will “struggle to retaliate” without justifying the war.
The Israeli army said it had struck several targets belonging to Hezbollah’s air defence unit in the Bekaa Valley “in response to the terror group shooting down a … Hermes 450 drone over southern Lebanon” early yesterday. Hezbollah said it had used a surface-to-air missile to down the drone over the Nabatieh province of southern Lebanon.
This was the second time the group claimed to have shot down a drone of this type.
Footage shared online showed the drone in flames as it plummeted to the ground.
The Israeli military said two missiles were fired at the drone. The first was intercepted by the David’s Sling air defence system, but the second
hit the drone, and it fell inside Lebanese territory”.
Also yesterday, Israeli media said a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a chicken coop in the border community of Shtula, injuring one person, who was said to be in a stable condition.
A Hezbollah fighter was killed yesterday afternoon on the road to the village of Al Majadel after an Israeli drone struck his car. The death was confirmed to The National by an official with the Lebanese Risala Scout Association, which runs rescue teams and is affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement.
Iran-backed Hezbollah opened a new front against Israel a day after the Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza, where Israel has mounted a ground incursion and relentless bombardment, killing more than 29,700 Palestinians. It followed Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and saw about 240 hostages taken.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 281 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 44 civilians, according to AFP.
Four months into the conflict, Israel has intensified attacks deeper into Lebanon amid accusations by Human Rights Watch of “unlawful strikes” and “apparent indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians”.
Israel said 10 of its soldiers and six civilians have been killed in the fighting.
The violence has uprooted tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.