Lebanon: Israeli strikes kill at least 40 people in the east of the country

At least 40 people were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

An Israeli official said the strikes, in the Baalbek and Bekaa regions, were aimed at operatives of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s culture minister said one of the strikes also badly damaged an Ottoman-era building near Roman ruins in the city of Baalbek, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Israeli airstrikes hit southern Beirut again on Wednesday, after the IDF issued evacuation warnings. The army said it hit Hezbollah facilities, weapons stores and other infrastructure.

The IDF’s latest warning covered four areas south of Beirut including the area near Lebanon’s international airport, which has continued to operate despite Israeli attacks on the capital.

Soon after, images showed a huge fireball and thick black smoke rising into the night sky above Beirut.

Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon killed an Israeli man near a kibbutz in northern Israel, emergency services said.

Lebanon’s security agency also said the bodies of 30 people were found in a four-story building that was hit by an Israeli strike on Tuesday evening that destroyed one side of the building and ignited a fire.

The building, located in Barja, a predominantly Sunni Muslim coastal town south of Beirut, reportedly houses homeless people.

The Israeli military said it had hit Hezbollah’s “terrorist infrastructure”.

A man who lived on one of the top floors of the building that was hit said his son and wife were injured by the stonework.

“These stones you see here weigh 100kg, they fell on a 13kg child,” Moussa Zahran told Reuters news agency while assessing the damage.

“I deleted it [the rocks] and… he gave my son to the public defender through the window. I carried my wife downstairs and went out behind the building… I thank God, praise be to Him, for this miracle.”

An Irish Times reporter quoted a member of the public defense at the scene as saying that those killed whose bodies were found intact include seven women and three children – a seven-month-old baby and two girls aged seven and 12.

Neighbors also said that this building was the house of people who fled from other areas, he added.

There was no warning to evacuate before the strike, according to Reuters.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health put the death toll at 20 in the Barja strike on Tuesday night but did not provide an updated figure on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, the Ministry said that 40 people were killed and 53 others were injured in a series of Israeli strikes in the Bekaa and Baalbek Governorates, which make up most of the eastern Bekaa Valley. They included 16 people killed in the village of Nasriyah and 11 in the town of Baalbek, it added.

Lebanon’s Minister of Culture Mohammad Mortada also told the Director General of Unesco that one of the strikes “caused serious damage to the ancient building of Manshiya” in the city of Baalbek, which he said dates back to Ottoman times and was close to the Ottomans. the ruins of several Roman temples.

“The destruction of this unique monument next to the UNESCO world heritage site is an irreparable loss to Lebanon and world heritage,” he warned.

An AFP news reporter also reported that the famous 19th Century Palmyra Hotel near the ruins of Rome was destroyed by nearby strikes, which the Ministry of Health says killed two people.

An Israeli military official said its aircraft carried out the strikes based on direct information indicating the presence of Hezbollah operatives in the Baalbek area.

The army also claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander in the southern province of Khiam, and that a number of other Hezbollah fighters were killed in airstrikes and military operations in southern Lebanon the previous day.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said in a speech that the group has “tens of thousands of combat-trained soldiers” ready to fight and that there is no place in Israel “beyond the reach of our fighter jets and missiles”.

“I will tell you clearly, our belief is that there is only one thing that can stop this war of aggression, and that is the battlefield,” he said, adding that he did not believe that “political action” would end the conflict.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired about 170 rockets into northern and central Israel on Wednesday.

In the evening, the Magen David Adom ambulance said a man was killed by a rocket near Kfar Masaryk, which is south of the coastal city of Acre.

Paramedics said the suspect was found in the field with serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Later, Israeli media identified him as Sivan Sade, an 18-year-old resident of Kfar Masaryk who worked in the field.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli media said a single rocket hit a parking lot near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, but the Israel Airport Authority said its operations were not affected. Hezbollah said it was targeting the Tzrifin military base near the airport.

A large part of the rocket also hit a parked car in the town of Raanana, north of Tel Aviv.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated six weeks ago, at least 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced across Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli airstrikes have eliminated most of the group’s leadership, including Qassem’s predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, and caused heavy damage in southern and eastern Lebanon and areas south of Beirut – areas where Hezbollah is strong.

Israel continued to attack Hezbollah after a year of fighting across the border that resulted from the war in Gaza.

Saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of Israeli border residents in the north who were displaced by rocket attacks, Hezbollah launched its support for the Palestinians a day after a deadly attack by its ally Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israeli authorities say more than 70 people have been killed in Hezbollah attacks in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights last year.