In the east and south of Lebanon, there was destruction and death after Israel’s intense raids

afp_tickers

Within minutes, Ali Kanaan lost his mother, sister-in-law, and two children in an Israeli attack on the remote village of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Monday, after a bloody day in which at least sixty people were killed as a result of the most violent raids in the area.

In the ruins of his mother’s house, Canaan stood in sorrow. The house, which is in the middle of an agricultural field, was razed to the ground. Only stones and iron were left after the Israeli bombing that targeted the town of Al-Allaq on Monday night, killing 16 people, according to the Ministry of Health.

Beneath the rubble, cooking pots were scattered as the explosion pushed an old carpet to the ground nearby.

Kanaan says, “There was a massacre here.” He explains that the raids began shortly before seven o’clock in the afternoon, when “they bombed a house at the entrance of the town and there were martyrs.”

Then, his brothers went to the targeted house to help in the rescue operation. Just half an hour later, “they bombed our house. a girl who was helping my mother at home died.”

The man said, “This is a civilian house, with children and women there… and there is nothing around us.”

– ‘Innocent people’ –

Since last month, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on areas considered to be Hezbollah strongholds near Beirut and in the south and east of the country. It launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon after exchanging bombs over a year with Hezbollah across the border.

For a month, the Baalbek region has been under control almost every day. But Monday’s raid was “the most violent,” according to what the governor of the region, Bashir Khader, wrote in a post on the “X” website.

The number of raids within 24 hours was higher than thirty, according to the governor of the remote area and the border with Syria. “Two-thirds of the victims are women and children,” Khader told AFP, adding that the work to remove the debris was still ongoing.

The Ministry of Health reported overnight that Israeli raids “on the cities and towns of the governorates of Baalbek-Hermel and Bekaa” including 12 villages and towns, resulted in the killing of sixty people and the wounding of another 58 .

Among the dead were six people killed in an attack that targeted Gouraud Barracks, an old military barracks dating back to the days of the French Mandate, which was home to poor, displaced families for decades on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek.

Baalbek is considered one of the largest cities in the Bekaa. After remaining free from the escalation between Hezbollah and Israel for almost a year, raids targeted it and its surroundings in recent weeks. More than half of the population of 250,000 have left the city.

In Goro Barracks, which looked like a small neighborhood, dust and debris were scattered everywhere, while residents stood surveying the wreckage, some of them looking for the could be saved.

Many cars were damaged in the surrounding area, entire homes were melted, and the walls of other nearby buildings were destroyed.

The house of Muhammad Al-Rifai, who lives in a neighboring neighborhood, was damaged. The man says, “This is an old French barracks, where immigrants have been living since the seventies, and nothing else.”

He said, “What is happening in the country is a tragedy. The people who were killed were innocent. They had nothing to do with anything, not even with Hezbollah.”

– “Unjustified” –

At the same time as the raids in eastern Lebanon, the coastal city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, was under rounds of raids since dawn on Monday.

On the streets of the city, which includes Roman ruins that are on the World Heritage List of the Organization for Science, Culture and Education, and is famous for its sandy beach, an Agence France-Presse videographer saw on Tuesday collapsed building facades and others. damage

Above one of the collapsed buildings, a yellow banner was raised that read, “Despite the killings, we will prevail,” and another that read in English, “Made in the United States.”

Smoke was still rising from the rubble of a smoking building near a destroyed cafe, and cars had broken windows and were damaged by falling debris.

Residents tried to reopen roads closed due to debris.

Hassan Fakih, whose family museum shop has been vandalized for more than 50 years, said, “We were surprised. There are no security forces here and there is no resistance.”

He said, “We did not expect the raids to happen deep inside the resort town.

The Israeli army announced that it was targeting “Hezbollah activities” in Tyre.

Rabei Atwi came to inspect a friend’s restaurant on the seafront in Tiree, which had recently been damaged by raids.

“This is an economic street, the lifeline of the economy,” Atwi says, adding, “There are no weapons or missiles here. There are only restaurants.

The man continues, “Israel wants to change the characteristics of life and they want to return us to the Stone Age, as they say, but we are stable and we will build the city.”

Great/lo/way