BEIRUT: Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed 11 people across the country on Tuesday, including five in a rare attack on a house east of Beirut, where a security official said displaced people lived.

Hezbollah also said it fired missiles at an air base near Tel Aviv, following a wave of Israeli air strikes on the group’s south Beirut bastion.

Since Sept 23, Israel has stepped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and in the east and south of the country. On Sept 30, it sent in ground troops.

“The Israeli enemy strike on Baalshmay killed five people,” the health ministry said in an initial report, referring to a mountain village east of Beirut, outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.

Hezbollah targets air base south of Tel Aviv

The security official said the “Israeli strike targeted a house where displaced people lived, including women and children”.

Israeli strikes also killed one person in the eastern Hermel region and five others in the southern village of Tefahta, about 25 kilometres from the border with Israel, the ministry said.

Israeli strikes outside Hezbollah strongholds have often targeted buildings where displaced civilians have sought refuge, with Lebanese security officials saying the targets were Hezbollah operatives.

On Monday, Israel struck Lebanon’s northernmost Akkar region, killing at least eight people according to the ministry, in one of the farthest attacks from the border since the war began in September.

On Sunday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat, north of the capital.

South Beirut strikes

On Tuesday, Hezbollah targeted an “air base south of Tel Aviv... with a salvo of quality missiles”, the group said, after Israel’s military said it had intercepted projectiles fired from Lebanon.

Sirens sounded across central Israel and media reported that flights were temporarily halted at Ben Gurion International Airport.

That attack came after Israel launched more than a dozen air strikes on south Beirut, state media said, shortly after its military warned residents of four districts in the Hezbollah stronghold to evacuate.

“Israeli warplanes launched a violent strike targeting the Hadi Nasrallah highway, which is the 13th raid on Beirut’s southern suburb,” the official National News Agency (NNA) said.

Witnesses said they heard gunfire in the area ahead of the strikes — warning shots by residents for people to leave following the evacuation call. The NNA also reported Israeli attacks in east and south Lebanon, including on the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

Last month, Israeli strikes razed Nabatiyeh’s historic marketplace, with another wave of attacks hitting city hall and killing several people including the mayor.

Two killed in Israel

Rocket fire from Lebanon on Tuesday killed two men in their 40s in northern Israel, close to the town of Nahariya, first responders said.

Emergency medic Dor Vakinin said a rocket hit a warehouse and that emergency teams arrived on the scene “quickly”.

“There was a lot of destruction and an active fire,” he said. “We performed medical examinations on two men who were lying unconscious and suffering from severe injuries to their bodies. Unfortunately their injuries were too severe and after the examinations, we had to determine the death of both of them.” The Israeli military said a barrage of 10 rockets was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, some of which were intercepted, while “others fell in the area”.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024