Israel kills 66 people in Baalbek in one of its most violent days of aggression on Lebanon

In one of the most violent days of its aggression on Lebanon, Israel killed 66 people during an eight-hour bombing campaign on Monday night, targeting the city of Baalbek and several towns and villages across the eastern Baalbek-Hermel governorate.

The region of eastern Lebanon has been targeted since February this year by intermittent Israeli bombing, which escalated along with Israel’s attack on Lebanon in mid-September.

Hezbollah conducted operations on Tuesday morning to repel the Israeli military’s attempt to advance on the southern town of Khiam, security sources told Mada Masr, while the party also announced that former Deputy Secretary General Naeem Qassem would assume the position of secretary general.

“Residents truly lived a horrific experience” as Monday’s airstrikes reached a level that has never been seen before, according to Lina Ismail, a journalist for the Lebanese Annahar newspaper who spoke to Mada Masr from Baalbek city on Tuesday morning, describing the day as “unprecedented.”

Israeli drones continued to fly over the region incessantly, she said, as Lebanon’s civil defense agency — civil defense teams belonging to the Islamic Health Authority affiliated with Hezbollah — and the Lebanese Red Cross were still working on search and rescue operations on Tuesday morning.

Israeli warplanes launched over 70 missiles in under eight hours in total, according to Ismail, noting that they struck civilian homes full of residents, killing around 66 people, many of whom were women and children.

Over two-thirds of the victims of the raids were women and children, said Baalbek Governor Bachir Khodr, sharing a photograph of a young girl who he said was the only survivor of bombing on the town of Alaq that killed 16 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Hospitals received over 120 people who were wounded, according to Khodr. Hospital capacities are limited although health teams are doing what they can, Ismail noted, expressing concern that if the bombing on Baalbek continues for another two months, health facilities will be unable to provide the necessary care.

The Murtada Hospital in Baalbek sustained damage earlier this month after an Israeli airstrike targeted a site in its vicinity.

The destruction wrought on Baalbek city and its outskirts was massive, Ismail said, pointing to the use of heavy “concussion missiles” that cause damage within a 500-meter radius of their target.

A Lebanese internal security source speaking to Mada Masr likewise pointed to the use of “concussion missiles” in yesterday’s campaign on Baalbek, describing them as “destroying houses and digging deep hollows in the ground.”

Ismail also described the direct destruction of an archaeological site inside the city of Baalbek known as the Gouraud Barracks, which is located near a Palestinian refugee camp in the city. The Health Ministry said six people were killed in the barracks’ targeting. 

Aside from the homes damaged, Ismail noted to Mada Masr that 15,000 civilian facilities have been destroyed since the beginning of the war, as well as multiple dirt tracks created by local residents as informal crossings between Lebanon and Syria.

The Lebanese security source confirmed that some of yesterday’s airstrikes left craters at different sites on the informal roads between Hermel, Baalbek and Syria, and that they also targeted the official Masnaa Crossing in the Beqaa further south, one of the main crossings serving vehicles and pedestrians passing between Lebanon and Syria, which has been targeted several times already in Israel’s aggression since September.

The destruction of roads and infrastructure has affected the availability of basic needs, such as food and fuel, Ismail said, adding that their prices have risen significantly, stretching residents’ means.

Over 12,400 people are officially registered as displaced in the governorate, according to the Lebanese Cabinet’s Disaster Risk Management Unit, which estimates that the real figure is much higher.

There is a scarcity of food and psychological support, Ismail continued, saying that aid reaching the region is only allocated to shelters and is not sufficient for the number of residents staying in the shelters.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, heavy bombing targeted the coastal city of Sur over the last 24 hours, including the Biyot al-Siyad area, where two Red Cross ambulances were damaged, the agency said. Hassan Daboq told Mada Masr on Tuesday morning that “the Israeli occupation destroyed four neighborhoods in Sur as part of its scorched earth policy in south Lebanese towns.”

The coastal areas of Sur have also been targeted, said Daboq, noting that the attacks will likely impact the coastal tourism season in the coming year. 

Clashes between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in south Lebanon were centered to the southeast of the town of Khiam, where Hezbollah fighters were conducting operations to repel an attempted incursion by Israel on Tuesday morning, the security source said.

A Lebanese military source confirmed that Israeli tanks attempted to advance toward Khiam on Tuesday.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Monday night that it had launched a rocket salvo to repel an Israeli military “gathering” in Khiam, while Lebanese media reported that Israel launched intensive airstrikes on the town on Tuesday.

The group also released a statement on Monday morning, announcing that Naeem Qassem would assume the role of secretary general of the party.

Israel assassinated former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, who headed the party for over 30 years, in a massive air raid on Beirut in early October. It also assassinated Hashem Safieddine, who was widely believed to be the preferred candidate to succeed Nasrallah, in a strike in the following weeks.