Israel Launches Attacks Against NE Lebanon Killing at Least Two

Overnight and into Sunday, Israel carried out a flurry of attacks against northeastern Lebanon, targeting a building they claimed was a weapons workshop and going after a vehicle outside of the city of Baalbek.

The weapons workshop, according to Israel, was used to store weapons. In reality, officials say it was an abandoned two-story building that had stayed empty for some time. Four people in surrounding buildings were injured during the attacks on that structure.

Elsewhere, in the Bekaa Valley area of Suwairi, Israeli planes targeted a car and killed at least the driver. Israel didn’t explain the rationale behind the attacks, but the driver was said to be Syrian, and the car belonged to the owner of a supermarket, for whom he had been delivering food.

Hezbollah issued a statement later confirming two of its members had been killed, but did not provide details yet as to where or how. Possibly the driver of the car may have been one of these two.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader strongly criticized these recent attacks, saying Israel is expanding attacks on civilians in and around Baalbek. Hezbollah retaliated by firing some 60 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, with the deputy leader saying there would be further response in time.

The Bekaa Valley is a Hezbollah stronghold near the Syrian border and has long been suspected as a waystation for weapons to reach Hezbollah by way of Syria. This has served as a pretext for numerous Israeli attacks on both sides of the border.

This was the third set of attacks against Bekaa Valley since Israel and Hezbollah began fighting in October. The most recent was a couple of weeks ago, killing two and wounding some 20 people in an attack on a warehouse.

Most Israeli attacks are on targets near the border, but when attacks penetrate much more deeply into Lebanon, it raises concerns about the conflict escalating nationwide.