Israeli warplanes strike deep in Lebanon as Hamas delegation meets Hezbollah in Beirut

Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah have been engaged in some of their fiercest clashes since fighting erupted on October 8, with warplanes bombing targets deep within Lebanon over the past two days.

The militant group fired some of the largest rocket volleys of the conflict so far – launching 100 into Israel.

Israeli jets struck targets in the Bekaa Valley killing at least two civilians.

A militia member was also killed, according to reports.

Amid the violence, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met a Hamas delegation in

Beirut, including the movement’s deputy head in Gaza, Khalil Al Hayya.

The Israeli military said yesterday its jets had “struck two Hezbollah military command centres” in the Baalbek area, in response to Hezbollah rocket launches towards northern Israel earlier in the day.

The violence marked a surge in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has been fought in parallel to the war in Gaza and fuelled fears of an all-out conflict between the adversaries.

Both sides are already on the brink of wider war, with Israel saying yesterday that in five months of fighting, its jets had struck 4,500 targets in Lebanon.

Israel claimed yesterday its aircraft had struck Hezbollah sites used to store “significant assets used to strengthen its weapons arsenal”.

The violence occurred as the Hezbollah and Hamas delegations discussed the situation in Gaza, including negotiations towards a ceasefire there, plus conflict in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have been conducting raids, said Hezbollah.

Also present was Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan.

According to Hezbollah, part of its rationale is to ease the pressure on Hamas, which is battling Israeli forces in Gaza. More than 200 Hezbollah fighters have been killed by Israel in the fighting.

Hamas militants launched attacks on communities in southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 240.

Subsequent Israeli strikes and its ground offensive response have killed more than 31,100 people in Gaza. Aid agencies have warned that famine is looming.

While clashes in Lebanon were initially contained to the border areas, they have gradually increased in their scope and intensity.

On January 2, Hamas deputy Saleh Al Arouri was killed in an

Israeli attack. He is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since October 7.

The cross-border clashes have been almost relentless, with the Israeli army yesterday saying it has struck 4,500 Hezbollah targets since October 8, killing 300 militia fighters and injuring 750.

The targets, hit from the air and the ground, included weapons depots, buildings used by Hezbollah for attacks, more than 150 observation posts along the border, about 70 command centres, more than 50 rocket sites and dozens of squads carrying out anti-tank missile attacks, the army said.

But civilians have paid a terrible price, with more than 50 killed in Lebanon and about 100,000 displaced from their homes.

Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have killed a dozen soldiers and six civilians, while tens of thousands of Israelis have fled from villages near the border.

The Israeli army “is constantly working to push Hezbollah’s forces and its systems out of southern Lebanon, and has carried out significant attacks in this area”, it said.

The fighting has begun to spread further from the border, with Israeli air strikes hitting deeper into Lebanon since late last month. Many fear the clashes may escalate into a far deadlier conflict.

The 2006 war, which raged for a little more than a month, killed about 1,300 in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and almost 170 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

But Hezbollah’s arsenal is now believed to be many times larger than in 2006, and Israel has threatened to strike all of Lebanon, including civilian infrastructure, if full-scale war breaks out.