Israeli fighter jets raid across Lebanon as Baalbek hit
Israeli attack and surveillance drones were reported flying over the area shortly before the strikes.
Here is a series of other attacks launched by Israel across Lebanon in short proximity to the strikes on Baalbek, as reported by the NNA:
- Israeli aircraft launched violent raids on Sohmor and Labaya in Western Bekaa.
- Israel bombed homes in the Wadi al-Asafir area in the city of Khiam.
- Israeli aircraft launched a raid on a residential area near the industrial city in the suburbs of Tyre.
- Israeli forces attacked a home in the agricultural area near Tyre, and hit the towns of al-Shaitiyah and al-Malikiyah.
- An Israeli air strike targeted the outskirts of the town of Al-Sarirah in the Jezzine region.
Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy says the prospects of a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza are slim.
“No one in the government has any intention for withdrawal from Gaza. Without withdrawal, there is no ceasefire, no agreement and no hostages release. Nobody in the government will let the army totally withdraw from Gaza, and this means war forever,” Levy told Al Jazeera.
Speaking from Tel Aviv, Levy said Israeli soldiers are being killed in Gaza, and, despite this, “almost nobody is speaking about withdrawal.”
But with Hezbollah, things are clearer because if the group agrees to withdraw beyond the Litani River, “they understand – at least in the army – that continuing to fight will lead to nowhere because Hezbollah is too strong still.”
“You cannot go and crush Hezbollah. I think the real question is why don’t you adopt the same policy in Gaza because it makes sense now. Let’s go out.”
Air strikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts, an AFP correspondent reported, hours after Israel issued a forced displacement call for the area.
Baalbek Mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes hit the city and its surroundings, while state media said “enemy warplanes launched a series of strikes on the al-Asira area of the city of Baalbek” and in a nearby town.
Earlier today, Baalbek residents rushed out of their homes after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon’s biggest eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.
The Israeli army threatened residents of Baalbek and surrounding villages to leave immediately, saying it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets.
The main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic, an AFP correspondent reported.
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This is a significant chunk of Baalbek that has been put under these evacuation orders and let’s call evacuation orders what they are.
They’re effectively a kill zone – if you remain behind, Israel says that you are a fair target.
Now, that despite the fact that Israel does have under international humanitarian law a responsibility to any civilians left behind after they give those orders, but people are taking them seriously.
They’re already fleeing.
We’ve heard from the governor of Baalbek telling people to go to safe areas, to avoid certain roads.
No air strikes have taken place as of yet, but people are very worried that those are going to come in very, very quickly.
People used to be able to go to Tyre, but that’s actually being bombed by the Israelis as well. Some people are coming to Beirut, to other areas, but there aren’t any government shelters that are receiving people.
If you have the money for a hotel and you can find a hotel, how much longer can you stay there if you’ve left everything behind, including the way you make money, your livelihood?
It’s another strain on the system, and we are expecting these air strikes to take place in Baalbek very shortly.
“Final victory will be ours,” he said in a nearly hour-long pre-recorded video, with the flags of Lebanon and Hezbollah and an image of his assassinated predecessor Hassan Nasrallah behind him.
Qassem said Nasrallah was like a brother to him, and assassinated leader Hashem Safieddine was a man upon whom Nasrallah could heavily rely on. He described killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar as “an icon of heroism and Palestinian resistance and the free people of the world”.
Qassem vowed that under his leadership, Hezbollah will continue the work of Nasrallah and keep fighting a war with Israel while following the same political path.
“Helping Gaza is our duty and we will defend it to counter the Israeli threat for the entire region.”
New Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has delivered a message of continuity and resistance from the Lebanese group [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]
‘Whoever is injured, just lies there on the ground’: Kamal Adwan doctor
We reported earlier that authorities in Beit Lahiya declared the area a disaster zone and described how Israeli attacks have left the area “without food, without water, without hospitals, without doctors”.
Dr Eid Sabbah of Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital told Reuters that bodies and injured people remained trapped under rubble.
He said the destruction of hospitals and lack of medical supplies meant doctors and nurses mostly had no chance of saving people who came in with injuries from air strikes and gunfire.
“Whoever is injured, just lies there on the ground and whoever is killed can’t be transported, except by mule-drawn cart,” he said.
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