Israel has carried out a large number of airstrikes against northeastern Lebanon today, targeting the Bekaa Valley and nearby areas in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. At least 12 people have been confirmed killed and 12 more wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The slain included seven Syrians, including a family of five, killed in the Wadi Faraa area. Three Lebanese were also killed in Wadi Faraa’s strikes, while two more were killed in Chmistar.
The IDF claimed the strikes targeted a number of military compounds and warehouses belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, and further claimed the existence of those facilities both threatened Israel and amounted to a blatant violation of the ceasefire. They also claimed the forces were training for an invasion of Israel.
In practice, it’s not clear any secret Hezbollah facilities were among the sites hit, and certainly a family of uninvolved Syrians ended up being hit. Moreover, the area where the strikes took place was not particularly close to the Israeli border, so it’s not clear why Hezbollah would be planning an invasion from there.
Which brings up another important point: despite the IDF claim of a blatant violation of the ceasefire, that ceasefire only required Hezbollah to remove itself from south of the Litani River. While the Litani River indeed strays northward in the east, the location of most of these strikes is well north of the point where the river stops existing, so even if these turned out to be secret Hezbollah sites, they wouldn’t be a violation of the ceasefire.
Israel continues carrying out deadly attacks on a near daily basis against Lebanon, but today’s attacks were among the deadliest since the November ceasefire, and in and of themselves clearly yet another major Israeli violation of the very idea of a ceasefire, which is to cease firing.
