Israel Renews Strikes on Hezbollah Strongholds: Reports

Cross-border tensions continue to escalate and show no sign of slowing down

Media in Lebanon are reporting renewed strikes in northeastern Lebanon's Baalbek District by the Israeli Defense Force.

The strikes follow an IDF announcement alleging it had targeted a Hezbollah compound near Zboud after missiles were launched at the Mount Meron air traffic control base.

The reports come in the aftermath of an Israeli attack that killed two members of Hezbollah amid accusations the country is attempting to expand its strikes.

Security sources disclosed two Israeli air raids deep inside the east of Lebanon on Monday, according to Barron's.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group known to have ties to Hamas, have been exchanging cross-border fire almost daily since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

Baalbek is around 100 kilometers from the Israeli border and an area identified as a Hezbollah hide-out.

In recent weeks, heightened tensions have spiked due to Israeli air strikes furthering into eastern Lebanon.

"Today the enemy is trying to expand its attacks against civilians in Baalbek, in the western Bekaa or elsewhere," Hezbollah's deputy chief Naim Qassem said Sunday.

"There will be responses to each of them."

No details have been revealed as to where the two Hezbollah fighters died, but the militant group said they "died as martyrs" due to Israeli attacks.

Another Israeli strike on a car near the Syrian border killed a man early Sunday. Overnight fire in the region wounded four people, said security sources.

"Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle in... Suwairi, killing its Syrian driver," the security source told AFP, requesting anonymity because of security concerns.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the driver killed by the strike had been delivering food in a car that belonged to a supermarket owner.

On Saturday, Israeli missiles struck an abandoned Hezbollah center in the Baalbek district. Four people were reportedly wounded.

The Israel-Lebanon border had been relatively calm for roughly ten days before strikes at al-Osseira, located 100 kilometers from the border.

In a statement, the Israeli military claimed fighter jets "struck a Hezbollah manufacturing site containing weapons in the area of Baalbek," the main city in the Bekaa Valley.

Additionally, Hezbollah revealed it fired "more than 60 Katyusha-type rockets" at two Israeli military positions in the occupied Golan Heights in retaliation to the Israeli strikes.

"Approximately 50 launches were identified from Lebanon toward northern Israel," said the Israeli military but did not point to any victims or damage.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant cautioned that a possible truce in Gaza would not influence Israel's "objective" of pushing Hezbollah back from its northern border, however deemed necessary.

At least 326 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including more than 50 civilians, according to an AFP count.

At least ten soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the military.

Hezbollah has reiterated on numerous occasions that it will only halt its attacks against Israel if there's a ceasefire in Gaza.

Tags
Lebanon, Israel, IDF, Hezbollah, Hamas, Gaza, Ceasefire
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