IDF targets Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon for first time

Israel carried out some of its deepest strikes in Lebanon on Monday in the first attacks on Hezbollah targets outside of the country’s south since the start of the war in Gaza.

The strikes hit an area some 11 miles west of the city of Baalbek, security sources said. The eastern city, a Hezbollah bastion known for its ancient ruins, sits within the Bekaa Valley region. It borders government-held Syria, a major Hezbollah ally.

The Israeli military said its air force was striking Hezbollah “deep inside Lebanon,” after the group downed an Israeli drone.

At least two people were killed in the strikes, a Hezbollah official said.

Hezbollah has been waging attacks on Israeli positions at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since the Oct 7 attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, in what it has described as a campaign to support Palestinians under fire in the Gaza Strip.

Outside of the daily tit-for-tat clashes, Israel has been routinely puncturing deeper inside Lebanese territory in recent weeks, unnerving much of the Lebanese population.

Some 50 Lebanese civilians and more than 200 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the clashes. Six Israeli civilians and a dozen troops have been killed in Israel.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed to intensify attacks against Hezbollah, even if a temporary ceasefire in Gaza is reached, in order to force the group away from the border.

Source » telegraph.co.uk