Israel bombs Hezbollah arms depots in Lebanon, group retaliates with rocket attack

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it bombed Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight, its latest strike on arms depots in a major stronghold of the powerful Iranian-backed militia.

The air attack came hours after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that “attacking munitions warehouses in Lebanon is preparation for anything that might happen”.

Hezbollah said it had retaliated for the strike on the Bekaa region by firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military logistics site in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been locked in hostilities for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas, which has spread to several other fronts and prompted fears of an all-out Middle East conflict.

While most of the exchanges of fire have played out along Lebanon’s volatile southern border with Israel, some Israeli strikes have occurred deeper into Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria.

There was no immediate confirmation from security sources in Lebanon that weapons depots were targeted on Tuesday. Sources said the strike was in a residential area near the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa, an area populated mainly by Shi’ite Muslims from whom Hezbollah draws its support.

The airstrikes left at least two people dead and 19 injured, according to security sources, but it was not immediately clear if those killed were civilians or fighters.

Another Israeli airstrike on Wednesday hit a car on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, killing a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian faction Fatah, two Palestinian sources told Reuters.

Israel has regularly bombed Hezbollah fighters and rocket launch sites in south Lebanon. 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.