40 Killed, Dozens Injured in Israeli Strikes Targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the last year, the vast majority in the past six weeks.

Israel began strikes after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) issued evacuation warnings.

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Atleast 40 people were killed and 53 were injured in Israeli airstrikes around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon on Wednesday. In the evening, another set of strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting operatives of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

According to Reuters, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war but the fighting escalated since late September. Israel’s forces are intensifying bombing in the south and east of Lebanon and making ground incursions into border villages.

Israel began strikes after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) issued evacuation warnings. IDF later said it hit Hezbollah command centres, weapons stores and other infrastructure. 

The warning that came at dusk covered four neighbourhoods in southern Beirut including an area near Lebanon’s international airport, which has continued to operate despite Israel’s air strikes.

Meanwhile, a rocket launched by Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon killed an Israeli man near a kibbutz in northern Israel, paramedics said as per BBC.

The attack comes after around 30 were killed and pulled out of the rubble after an Israeli strike on an apartment building in the town of Barja on Tuesday night. The airstrike came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli military and the strike’s intended target also was unknown.

‘Need For Indirect Negotiations’

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the last year, the vast majority in the past six weeks.

Hezbollah secretary-general Naim Qaseem, on Wednesday, said that he did not believe that political action would bring the hostilities to an end. He said that there could be a road to indirect negotiations if Israel stopped its attacks. 

"When the enemy decides to stop the aggression, there is a path for negotiations that we have clearly defined - indirect negotiations through the Lebanese state and speaker (of parliament Nabih) Berri," Qassem was quoted by Reuters.

Efforts to bring a diplomatic end to the conflict have stalled. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Israel Katz as defence minister, who vowed to defeat Hezbollah so people displaced from northern Israel could return home.