Israeli Baalbek air strikes stoke escalation fears
Israel conducted a further round of air strikes near Baalbek, eastern Lebanon on March 11th, according to AFP.
The attack was the second in the area since the near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces began, on October 8th, 2023, stoking fears of a full-blown regional conflict being ignited.
READ: Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
A security source told AFP that “Israeli aircraft targeted a former Hezbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital,” and attacked a warehouse west of the city.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) confirmed both attacks, while reporting a further raid on a residential building in the town of Ansar, south of Baalbek, stating that “fire and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted location.”
One person was purportedly killed and six injured in the strikes, according to the governor of the Baalbek-Hermel, Bachir Khodr.
Israeli attacks have largely been confined to Lebanon’s border regions but have targeted Hezbollah positions further north in recent weeks.
Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told Aljazeera that “Israel made it clear that once they are done with Gaza, they will turn their attention to the north,” and that Israel “want Hezbollah way from their border [be it] diplomatically or militarily.”
Known as a Hezbollah stronghold, Baalbek sits in the Bekaa valley close to the Lebanon-Syria border, some 100km (62 miles) from Israel. On February 26th, Israel carried out strikes in the region, killing two Hezbollah members in its deepest raid into Lebanon since hostilities began.
READ: Israel’s strike on Baalbek raises stakes with Hezbollah
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that it will stop its attacks on Israel when a ceasefire in Gaza is implemented, in solidarity with Gaza’s fellow Iran-backed militia Hamas.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, however, recently said that a Gaza truce would not change his country’s goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7th, 2023, at least 316 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters to have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.
Israel has killed more than 31,000 people in its bombardment and invasion of Gaza to date, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
AFP / Aljazeera
