Tel aviv, Aug 21
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had bombed Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight, and Hezbollah said it had carried out a drone attack on military posts in a kibbutz in northern Israel in retaliation. The Bekaa Valley is a Hezbollah stronghold and the latest hostilities across the Israel-Lebanon border will fuel concern that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could spill out into an all-out Middle East conflict.
Israel also said it had killed a militant in Sidon, southern Lebanon, who worked with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said its warplanes had attacked a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the Bekaa area. “Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities that were struck,” it said in a statement.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Attacking munitions warehouses in Lebanon is preparation for anything that might happen”. There was no immediate confirmation from security sources in Lebanon that weapons depots were targeted on Tuesday.
The sources said the strike was in a residential area near the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, an area populated mainly by Shi’ite Muslims from whom Hezbollah draws its support.
The airstrikes killed at least two people and injured 19, according to the security sources, but it was not immediately clear if those killed were civilians or fighters.
Hezbollah said it had retaliated for the strike on the Bekaa by firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military logistics site in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and by later firing a swarm of drones on military posts in the kibbutz of Amiad in northern Israel, about 22 km (14 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The Israeli military said its aerial defences intercepted some of the drones and others fell in the area.
No injuries were reported. Israel said the militant killed in Sidon was named Khalil Hussein Khalil Al-Maqdah. Two Palestinian sources told Reuters earlier that Maqdah was killed, identifying him as a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian faction Fatah.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been locked in hostilities for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 although it has taken no direct action yet.
While most of the exchanges of fire have played out along the Israel-Lebanon border, some Israeli strikes have occurred deeper into Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria.
More than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed since the start of the clashes last October, including more than 400 Hezbollah combatants and 132 civilians, according to a Reuters toll.
Targeting arms depots has picked up more recently.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted a weapons depot used by Hezbollah militants in an airstrike. Lebanon’s state news agency said at least 10 Syrian nationals, including two children, were killed in this incident.
