Israel announces bombing of Hezbollah weapons depots in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and the group responds

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JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel’s military said on Wednesday it had bombed military and military bases belonging to the Hezbollah group in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight, and the group then said it responded by ‘ carrying out drone attacks on military sites in the north of the country. Israel.

The Bekaa Valley is a Hezbollah stronghold, and the latest exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border will fuel fears that the scope of the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) will widen in The Gaza Strip became a vast area. conflict in the Middle East.

Israel also said it killed a gunman in Sidon, southern Lebanon, adding that he was working with the Iranian-backed Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.

The Israeli army said its fighters targeted several Hezbollah military bases in the Bekaa and said in a statement, “After the strikes, explosives were found as a result, indicating that a large number of weapons in the facilities that were there. targeted.”

The airstrike came a few hours after Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, said it was “attacking military bases in Lebanon in anticipation of anything that might happen.” “

It was not possible to get confirmation from security sources in Lebanon that military bases were targeted on Tuesday. The sources said that the strike took place in a residential area near the city of Baalbek in the east of the country, which is mostly inhabited by Shiites, from which Hezbollah withdraws its support.

Security sources said at least two people were killed and 19 others wounded in the airstrikes, but it is still unclear whether the dead were civilians or fighters.

Hezbollah said it responded to the Bekaa Valley bombing by firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military logistics site in the Golan Heights, and later by launching a squadron of drones at military sites in Kyotz Amiad in northern Israel, about 22 kilometers from the Lebanese border.

The Israeli army said its air defenses intercepted some of the drones, and some of them crashed in the area, with no reports of injuries.

Israel identified the gunman killed in Sidon as Khalil Hussein Khalil Al-Miqdah. Earlier, two Palestinian sources told Reuters that Al-Maqdah had been killed and indicated that he was a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement.

Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire for about 10 months, at the same time as the war in the Gaza Strip.

Iran vowed to retaliate against Israel after the July 31 assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, but has yet to take direct action in this regard.

Although most of the exchanges of fire occurred on Lebanon’s troubled southern border with Israel, some Israeli strikes extended deep into Lebanon, which includes the Bekaa Valley.

Statistics compiled by Reuters concluded that around 622 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 416 Hezbollah fighters and 132 civilians, since the fighting began in October.

Targeting of weapons stores has recently increased.

The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had targeted, with an air strike, military bases used by Hezbollah militants. The official Lebanese News Agency reported that at least ten Syrian citizens, including two children, were killed in this strike.