Beirut: Israeli air strikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight have killed over 60 people across multiple towns, marking the deadliest day in the region amidst ongoing hostilities. District governor Bachir Khodor confirmed the death toll on Tuesday, with emergency responders still working through the rubble in an effort to retrieve bodies.
In recent weeks, Israel has intensified its air strikes across Lebanon, citing threats from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. However, Lebanese officials, human rights groups, and residents in the affected areas argue that the strikes are indiscriminate and lack any structured evacuation plan. Khodor stated that the confirmed death toll had reached 67, with over 120 reported wounded, noting that the numbers were expected to increase.
“That’s only the people who’ve been removed from under the rubble and we still don’t have the final toll. This is the most violent day for Baalbek in the last year,” Khodor told Reuters. Among the victims were nine people from Ram, including a woman and her four children, according to the town’s mayor, Nazih Noun.
“It’s quiet now, but we don’t know how we can carry on with the funerals given the security situation,” Noun said to Reuters.
Significant portions of the Bekaa Valley are known Hezbollah strongholds. Israel has not yet commented on the recent strikes.
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Since hostilities erupted more than a year ago between Israel’s military and Hezbollah alongside the ongoing Gaza conflict, Israeli bombardments have reportedly killed over 2,700 people in Lebanon, with two-thirds of these deaths occurring in the last five weeks alone amid a heightened bombing campaign. The recent escalated air strikes have extended to Lebanon’s port city of Tyre, where Israel issued a fresh evacuation order on Monday. Strikes in Tyre caused damage to offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, both located within the evacuation zone.
Satellite images reveal that several towns along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel now lie in ruins, evidence of the intensified destruction from ongoing hostilities.
