By Liam Stack and Matthew Mpoke Bigg
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had struck dozens of sites overnight in the north and south of Lebanon, part of its widening offensive against Hezbollah, a bombardment that Lebanese officials said had killed dozens of people.
Israel’s campaign initially focused on southern Lebanon, where it said it sought to cripple Hezbollah’s ability to fire rockets across the border into Israel. But the military operations have expanded in recent weeks to include cities and towns across the country, including some far from that border.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched more than 40 “projectiles” across the border Thursday. It said one Israeli soldier was killed in a battle in northern Lebanon, where Israel has ramped up military operations over the last week.
Israeli strikes in and around the ancient city of Baalbek, in northeastern Lebanon, and in other parts of the country, killed 52 people Wednesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. It was not clear how many were affiliated with Hezbollah.
Israel’s military said it had struck 20 sites in the area of Baalbek. It did not mention Sidon, a city on the southern coast where Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a strike Thursday had killed at least three people. The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, also said that five of its peacekeepers were “lightly injured” by a drone strike near Sidon on Thursday.
Baalbek, famed for its Roman ruins, was home to around 80,000 people before Israel stepped up its aerial assault in late September and launched a ground invasion aimed at crippling Hezbollah.
The governor of Baalbek, Bachir Khodr, said Wednesday that the Israeli attacks had come closer to the town’s ancient ruins than previous strikes, with a missile falling in the parking lot and causing damage to the historic neighborhood. He noted that the ruins had not yet been inspected for damage. On Thursday, Khodr posted an image showing the damaged lot adjacent to the ruins.
The ruins were designated a protected World Heritage Site in 1984 by the United Nations. Last week, the U.N. agency that designates cultural landmarks said it was “monitoring the impact of the ongoing conflict on Lebanese cultural sites” and working with Lebanon’s antiquities authority on preservation efforts.
While the city, near the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley, was largely spared during the early weeks of the campaign, Israeli military warnings in late October prompted much of its population to flee. Since then, Israel’s military has repeatedly struck Baalbek.
The Israeli military also said it had struck Hezbollah “command centers and terrorist infrastructure sites” near Beirut overnight. Residents reported hearing at least four large airstrikes near the Lebanese capital, with smoke rising over the Dahiya, an area south of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.
One hit so close to Beirut’s international airport that stones fell on a runway, according to local news reports. Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said Thursday that the airport was operating normally.
More than 3,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, most in the weeks since Israel ramped up its campaign against Hezbollah. More than 1.2 million people — a fifth of the country’s population — have fled their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
As the fighting in Lebanon has intensified, Israel’s military has been pressing a renewed offensive against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip. It said Thursday that it was expanding ground operations there to include Beit Lahia, an agricultural area on the Israeli border that has been targeted by repeated airstrikes.
Ground operations were also continuing in Jabalia, a large town that has been the focus of the northern offensive.
The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis that threatens hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the fighting in the north. The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency rescue organization, said Thursday that it had been unable to operate in the north for the last 16 days due to the fighting.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that Israeli military operations had killed at least 78 people in Gaza over the last two days.
Here’s what else is happening in the Middle East:
— Polio vaccinations: The United Nations said it completed the second round of its polio vaccination campaign in Gaza on Wednesday. The second dose of the vaccine was given to more than 556,774 children younger than 10, about 94% of the campaign’s goal, according to the United Nations. It called the vaccination rate “a remarkable achievement given the extremely difficult circumstances” created by the war.
— Medical evacuations: The World Health Organization said Thursday that it had carried out the largest medical evacuation from Gaza since the war began, with 229 patients and their escorts traveling from the enclave to Romania and the United Arab Emirates for treatment. The patients, who left Gaza on Wednesday, included 38 children and 52 adults, including 37 people with cancer.
— Israeli deportations: Israel’s parliament passed a law Wednesday allowing the deportation of parents, children, and spouses of convicted terrorists if they are believed to have known about an attack in advance without informing the authorities. The law authorizes the interior minister to deport those relatives to Gaza or another “specified destination.” Widely seen as targeting Israel’s Palestinian minority, the law was condemned as discriminatory by Rawhi Fattouh, a Palestinian leader in the West Bank.
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