Israel kills 52 in Lebanon as Hezbollah targets southern Israel

Lebanon said 52 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the east and south of the country on Thursday, the raids also hit the south of Beirut, and Hezbollah claimed responsibility for its deepest attack on Israel in more than a year.

Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which lasted more than 11 months due to the Gaza conflict, escalated into all-out war in September; Israel has conducted an extensive bombing campaign, primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.

In a statement listing tolls for 10 different locations, the Ministry of Health said 40 dead and 52 injured were left “in attacks by enemies of Israel targeting the Baalbek region” in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said that a couple and their four children were killed in an attack on a house in the village of Maqneh, while another couple and their young daughter were among the 11 people killed in a raid near Nabha.

The ministry also reported “seven dead and 24 wounded” in “Israeli enemy attacks” on the Nabatiyeh region of Southern Lebanon, and “five dead and 26 wounded” in attacks elsewhere in Southern Lebanon.

First responders in Israel said one person was killed after rocket fire from Lebanon hit the Galilee region in the country’s north.

In Beirut’s southern suburbs, as US envoy Amos Hochstein visited earlier this week to broker an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war, the NNA reported at least 12 attacks throughout Thursday.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee issued several rounds of evacuation warnings on social media platform X for Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as areas in and around the southern coastal city of Tire, but not for eastern Lebanon.

AFPTV footage showed columns of smoke rising from the southern suburbs, which are usually a densely populated residential area but are now largely empty.

Khiam

Adraee said on channel X that the Israeli army “targeted a weapons depot, a command center and terrorist infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah south of Beirut.

Amid a series of alleged attacks, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted “Hatzor air base” near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border, “with a salvo of missiles”. Conflicts lasted for more than a year.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said in 10 separate statements that its fighters also targeted Israeli troops in and near the city of Khiam in Southern Lebanon with artillery, rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles.

NNA said that the “enemy army” “blown up houses and residential buildings during the town attack.”

Lebanon’s official news agency and Hezbollah reported that there have been clashes and air strikes in the Khiam region since September 30, when Israeli ground troops first entered Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, visited the UNESCO-listed archaeological site of Baalbek after the UN cultural agency this week granted “temporary enhanced protection” to more than 30 heritage sites in Lebanon during the war .

At least 3,583 people have been killed in violence since October 2023, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. Most of the deaths have occurred since September this year.

Three soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, bringing the death toll in Lebanon since the start of ground operations to 52.