Lebanon said 52 people were killed Thursday in Israeli attacks in the east and south of the country, while strikes also hit southern Beirut and Hezbollah claimed its deepest attack on Israel in more than a year.
More than 11 months of cross-border firing between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict escalated into an all-out war in September, with Israel launching a widespread bombing campaign primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon. Ground forces were sent in.
A health ministry statement said “Israeli enemy attacks targeted the Baalbek district” in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, killing “40 people and wounding 52”.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a couple and their four children were killed in an attack on a house in the village of Makneh, while another couple and their young daughter were among 11 killed in an attack in nearby Nabha. Was also included.
The ministry also reported “seven dead and 24 wounded” in “Israeli enemy attacks” in the Nabatiyeh district of south Lebanon, and “five dead and 26 wounded” in attacks elsewhere in south Lebanon.
In Israel, first responders said one person died after a rocket was fired from Lebanon into the Galilee region in the country’s north.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, after a period of relative calm, the NNA reported at least 12 attacks on Thursday, while US envoy Amos Hochstein earlier this week called for an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adrai said on social media platforms
AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the southern suburbs, usually a densely populated residential district but now largely empty.
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Adrai said on Twitter that Israeli forces “targeted a weapons depot, a command headquarters and terrorist infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah in south Beirut.
Amid a series of attack claims, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted “Hatzor airport” with a missile attack near Israel’s southern city of Ashdod, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border. – which, in greater depth, is its deepest goal. More than a year of hostilities.
In 10 separate statements, Iran-backed Hezbollah said its fighters also targeted Israeli troops in and near the southern Lebanon city of Khiam, including with artillery, rockets and drones.
The NNA said that “enemy forces” were “blowing up houses and residential buildings during their incursion into the city”.
Lebanon’s official news agency and Hezbollah have reported fighting and airstrikes in the Khiyam area since Israeli ground troops entered Lebanon for the first time on September 30.
Earlier on Thursday, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, visited the UNESCO-listed archaeological area of Baalbek, just this week after the UN cultural body designated more than 30 heritage sites in Lebanon as “provisional” amid the war. “Enhanced Security” was provided.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that at least 3,583 people have been killed in the violence since October 2023. Most of the deaths have occurred since September this year.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that three soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the death toll in Lebanon to 52 since the start of the ground operation.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
