ISRAELI air raids have killed dozens of people in the Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon, a local official said, as a United States mediator sought to advance ceasefire talks in Israel.
At least 47 people were killed and 22 others wounded in the attacks, Bachir Khodr, governor of Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel province, said in a post on X on Thursday. Rescue operations were under way, he added.
Elsewhere in Lebanon, Beirut shook as Israeli air strikes hit the southern suburbs about a dozen times, sending up clouds of debris in some of the most intense air strikes yet.
The Israeli army said it carried out strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure and that it had mitigated civilian harm through advance warnings and other steps.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry also said that the three people were killed in an Israeli bombing of the town of al-Shaitiyah, near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon coincide with a push by nearby Israeli ground forces seeking to advance on a strategic hill known as al-Bayyaada.
“The air attacks are about disrupting supply lines so that Hezbollah cannot reinforce its troops in that area,” she said.
“What Israel is trying to do is take control of the coastal road that goes from the border to al-Bayyaada. From al-Bayyaada, it aims to take control of the surrounding areas. At that point, they would have the southern city of Tyre in sight,” she said.
“Israeli forces are already using artillery in this area, which means their artillery batteries are inside Lebanon. So, we are really seeing a major battle for control in this corner of southern Lebanon,” Khodr said.
Israel has been pounding southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs since late September, when the military escalated its conflict with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after months of exchanging cross-border fire.
