Attack on Lebanon.
The death toll from Israeli bombing in northeastern Lebanon has risen to 45. They also carried out airstrikes on rural villages, which had previously been spared from Israel’s airstrikes against Hezbollah. Baalbek Governor Bachir Khodar said 45 people were killed in airstrikes on nine villages in the northeast on Friday.
Separately, the news agency reported four more people dead in the small farming town of Olak, also in the Bekaa Valley. A rural area of olive groves and vineyards nestled between two Lebanese mountain ranges, home to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.
Attacks on remaining Hamas fighters intensify
The new violence comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic effort by the Biden administration to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement, days before the US election. Israel has intensified its offensive against remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza. It has destroyed areas in the north and threatens to worsen the humanitarian situation for civilians still there.
support for hezbollah
Initially targeting small border villages in the south, where Hezbollah enjoys deep support. In recent weeks, Israel has expanded its attacks in Lebanon to major urban centers such as Baalbek. Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has doubled down as a major political party and provider of social services in Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s solidarity with Hamas
Immediately after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas, began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon towards Israel, thus starting the war in Gaza. The year-long cross-border conflict ended on October 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground attack on southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.
Hezbollah targets were attacked
Israeli jets attacked the southern suburb of Dahiyah overnight and into Friday morning for the first time in four days in the Lebanese capital, causing panic. The Israeli army, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine towns in Dahiyah. He said he targeted Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and command centers. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Dahiyah, where residents flee en masse at night fearing Israeli shelling.
Dozens of buildings were destroyed
On Friday, bulldozers cut through clouds of dust and smoke to clear debris from shattered streets where Israeli warplanes had destroyed dozens of buildings. Mid-rise apartment blocks, once homes to families and businesses, were left exposed to the wind, with walls blown down and furniture buried. In several places, Hezbollah supporters waved the group’s bright yellow banner over the rubble.
forced to flee their homes
Lebanese parliamentarian Hussein Haj Hassan, who represents the region, said intense Israeli airstrikes this week in and around the northeastern city of Baalbek forced 60,000 people to flee their homes, leaving many small villages in the area empty. Overall, UN agencies estimate that the Israeli ground invasion and bombing of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people there. Residents of communities in northern Israel near Lebanon, some 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.
