Wednesday’s deadly Israeli strikes was incredibly close to Baalbek’s UNESCO World Heritage site [Getty]
In one of the deadliest days in Lebanon so far, at least 43 people were killed on Wednesday night when Israeli airstrikes hit the Baalbek-Hermel area of eastern Lebanon.
Israel also bombed the Lebanese capital Beirut, with strikes near Lebanon’s only civilian airport.
Several towns and villages in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel and Beqaa were the site of furious Israeli strikes which killed and injured dozens.
The Israeli military has recently began focusing much of its attacks here, last week warning people to leave the city of Baalbek and its suburbs. It marked its largest evacuation order yet.
Speaking to local broadcaster LBCI Wednesday night, Baalbek-Hermel Governor Bachir Khodr said at least 43 people were killed and over 50 wounded, with 11 others still missing. The death toll could rise.
“Today was a bloody and very difficult day” for the region, Khodr said, adding search operations were ongoing.
One strike hit very close to the ancient Roman sites in Baalbek city, the closest to hit the temple complex yet. An historic, Ottoman-era house was destroyed.
“The raid was the closest to Baalbek Citadel since the beginning of the [Israeli] aggression, as a missile fell inside the complex’s parking lot, causing major damage to the archaeological neighborhood of Al-Manshiya. The citadel has not yet been inspected to see if there is damage inside,” Khodr wrote on X Wednesday night.
He shared an image the following morning of the destruction caused by the strike, showing the rubble of one building and damaged vehicles.
Lebanese have grown extremely concerned that Israel’s strikes on Baalbek could damage or even destroy the ancient Roman temples, some of the grandest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Caretaker Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada previously told The New Arab that his ministry has submitted formal complaints to the UN body, calling on it to warn Israel to stop attacking heritage sites in Lebanon.
Strikes near Beirut airport
Israel bombed a location in the southern Beirut suburb of Ouzai adjacent to the Rafic Hariri International Airport in the late hours of Wednesday.
The Israeli military claimed it hit Hezbollah targets without providing evidence. However Lebanese media said a civilian runway was damaged.
“Runway Number 17 at Beirut Airport was damaged by shrapnel…as a result of the enemy raid at night on a building in the Ouzai area on the border of the runway, and repair works will be carried out,” local media reports said.
Lebanese caretaker Transport Minister Ali Hamieh gave assurances on Thursday that the airport was operating normally.
“The International Air Transport Association, through a letter sent to the Security Council through the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, stressed the importance of protecting civil aviation. The letter was shared by the President of the Security Council to member states,” he wrote on X, with the letter attached.
The New Arab tried contacting Hamieh for further clarifications.
The strikes came shortly after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut – known as Dahieh – which has already been emptied of much of its residents, devastated by weeks of intense bombardment.
Footage showed cars and civilians rushing to get out of the Ouzai suburb following the warnings. No deaths were reported in the raids.
Hezbollah hits near Tel Aviv airport
Many Lebanese had expressed concern online that Israel could bomb the country’s only airport, still operating despite the war, after one missile landed close to Israel’s largest civilian airport earlier Wednesday.
Hezbollah said it targeted the Tzrifin military base which is close to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Scenes from the airport showed smoke billowing after the impact and a crater in what looked like a car park.
In the 2006 summer war fought between Israel and Hezbollah, the Israeli military bombed Rafic Hariri International Airport multiple times, forcing it to shut. The airport resumed operations only days after a ceasefire in mid-August.
The current fighting erupted in October 2023 when Hezbollah started what it calls a “support front” with Palestinians in Gaza, trading fire with Israel across the border.
But in mid-September, Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon, focusing its attacks on the south, eastern Beqaa region, and Beirut’s southern suburbs and turning what was a low-level conflict into a full-scale war.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in total since last year, many of them civilians, including children and rescuers.
Israeli demolitions continue in south Lebanon
In southern Lebanon, at the front of the war, fighting has continued between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces.
For weeks, the Israeli army has tried to advance deeper into Lebanese territory as part of its “limited operations” that seek to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure, as it claims.
The clashes have focused on several areas. Israel’s airstrikes continued to kill people ain several southern towns and villages.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech on Wednesday that “tens of thousands of trained combatants” were ready to battle Israel.
The Israeli military announced the death of another soldier in south Lebanon, identifying him as Sgt. Ariel Sosnov. Another Israeli was also pronounced dead after a missile fell near a kibbutz in the Western Galilee on Wednesday.
Israeli forces blew up more homes in the border village of Mays al-Jabal on Wednesday. Videos online showed several houses being reduced to rubble in seconds as Israeli soldiers cheered.
Since beginning its incursions at the start of last month, the Israeli military has blown up dozens of villages along the frontier, as part of what analysts believe is Tel Aviv’s attempt to create a buffer zone in the area.
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, at least 37 villages have been “wiped out” and 40,000 housing units destroyed by Israel in south Lebanon, in an area spanning the entire border.
