Israel kills 40, destroys heritage site in night raids on Baalbek, Beqaa | Bombardment of Beirut nears international airport | Israeli airstrike on Saida road kills 3, injures 5 UNIFIL troops | Heads of Amal Movement, Hezbollah on US elections

Israel launched a series of raids starting on Wednesday afternoon continuing into the early hours of Thursday targeting areas in the city of Baalbek and other towns and villages across the Baalbek-Hermel governorate and central Bekaa Valley, killing over 40 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. 

The attacks injured scores more and destroyed homes and heritage sites in the historic city, according to Baalbek city municipality head, Mostafa Shal, who spoke to Mada Masr on Wednesday morning about the violent night. 

Israel escalated its targeting of Baalbek last week, ordering residents to evacuate for the first time in its weeks-long aggression on Lebanon. Residents have lived through several bloody days since then that have seen tens of people killed in airstrikes on towns and villages in the governorate in Lebanon’s northeast. 

A heavy exchange of fire also continued on the Lebanese border on Thursday morning between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters resisting their incursion, while Lebanese political figures commented in the wake of the election of Republican Party candidate Donald Trump. 

“The historic city was exposed to many airstrikes last night, more than seven strikes,” Shal said. “Many residential neighborhoods were targeted in the city of Baalbek and in one place nine people fell as martyrs.” The nine people were killed in the central neighborhood of Hay al-Shiqan, according to the National News Agency. 

A public space in Ras al-Ain was also bombed as well as the Sheikh Habib neighborhood, the municipality head said, pointing to the fact that “most of the areas targeted were residential areas.”

“The airstrikes also destroyed a heritage building dating back to the Ottoman era, which is directly linked to the citadel and the international festivals in Baalbek,” Shal added. Images of rubble in Baalbek were circulated on Wednesday night and described as the remains of the Manshiya, a historical building in Baalbek which used to operate as a theater. 

“Many buildings in Baalbek are listed as global heritage and protected by UNESCO,” Shal continued, “but unfortunately the world is quiet.”

He directed a message to “all the countries in the world who care about Baalbek’s history — an ancient history extending back many years — to move quickly to stop the Israeli aggression on the city of Baalbek, which is targeting the city as a whole, whether in terms of displacement or systematic destruction.”

Many residents of Baalbek left the city last week, when Israel began its escalation against the governorate which borders Syria. The governor instructed them to head in the direction of Aakar, in Lebanon’s north. 

Over 367,000 Syrian nationals and nearly 190,000 Lebanese nationals have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since September 23, according to figures released on Wednesday by the government disaster management committee. 

A Lebanese security source speaking to Mada Masr on Thursday morning said that the Arida crossing between Lebanon and Syria, which lies north of the coastal city of Tripoli, were “exceptionally crowded” with traffic, which the source considered to be a combination of families who have been displaced by Israel’s aggression leaving Lebanon and transit vehicles. 

The crossings to Syria at Masnaa and Qaa further to the southeast, which were previously the main route out of Lebanon for those seeking refuge in neighboring Syria, have since been closed, as Israeli bombing has targeted them both directly in recent weeks. 

In Lebanon’s south, Israel continued to launch heavy airstrikes at multiple sites including Aynata, Aytaroun, and the town of Bint Jbeil, while Israeli tank fire targeted other border towns and a raid targeted a home on the outskirts of Ramish, according to the NNA. 

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said that it had conducted six operations on Thursday launching missile salvoes at Israeli military “gatherings” in Maroun al-Ras, one of the first border towns to have come under Israeli fire since Occupation forces launched an invasion of Lebanon at the beginning of October. 

The Israeli military said on Thursday that one of its soldiers was killed and three more wounded in Hezbollah’s rocket barrages on settlements in northern Israel. 

Israel also conducted multiple overnight raids on the Lebanese capital again, issuing an evacuation order for a building located between two runways at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport. Agence France Press cited a source working at the airport saying “minor damage” had been caused to buildings affiliated with the airport, “but not its main building,” from Israel’s airstrikes overnight. 

Lebanon’s caretaker Transport Minister, however, told AFP that the airport was working normally, and confirmed that flights had taken off and landed after the attack took place near the airport. 

On Thursday afternoon, Israel launched an airstrike on a car near the Lebanese military checkpoint on the road leading from Saida to Beirut. Three people were killed in the strike, while UNIFIL peacekeeping troops who were passing through the area suffered light injuries due to the strike, according to the NNA’s correspondent in the area. UNIFIL later confirmed that its convoy bringing newly-arrived peacekeepers was passing Saida when a drone strike occurred nearby, injuring five UNIFIL troops and three soldiers in the Lebanese Army.

Heads of Hezbollah, Amal Movement comment on war situation after Trump’s election

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency on Wednesday, two of Lebanon’s most prominent political figures took to the media where they commented, in passing, on the electoral victory of the Republican Party candidate, former reality television star and convicted felon, as well as on the war. 

Naeem Qassem, newly appointed secretary general of Hezbollah, spoke to mark the passing of 40 days since the death of Hassan Nasrallah, his predecessor and 30 years head of the movement. As well as commemorating Nasrallah, Qassem laid out an assessment of the situation 40 days into Israel’s war on Lebanon. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has established his ambition to “change the face of the Middle East,” Qassem said, referring to a speech Netanyahu made last month. Qassem said that Netanyahu’s goals include ending Hezbollah, “work on the map of the Middle East” and the “occupation of Lebanon — even if only by air.”

In negotiations toward a ceasefire deal, reports in the US media have cited Israeli officials saying that Israel's demands for any diplomatic solution include permission to engage in “active enforcement” to ensure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm and that its air force have operational freedom in Lebanon’s airspace.

Qassem stated that Hezbollah’s belief at present is that the conflict with Israel will only be settled militarily. “Our conviction is that only one thing will stop this aggressive war, and that is the field,” adding that this is separated into two parts: resistance fighters’ clashes at the borders with the Israeli military and missile strikes on the Israeli interior. 

On the elections, he stated that “we are not building on the American elections, whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump win. Neither of them bear any value to us.”

Amal Movement head Nabih Berri, meanwhile, a fixture in the Lebanese political scene with over 32 years of experience in his role as parliament speaker, told Mostaqbel Web. 

Berri attributed Trump’s success in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where a significant Lebanese and Arab population reside, to “the policies of Joe Biden, who watched the killing of children in Gaza and Lebanon.” 

Regarding the situation of ongoing ceasefire talks following the visit of US envoy Amos Hochstein to Tel Aviv last week, Berri said the ball is in Israel’s court and that Hochstein can return to Lebanon if he senses a positive Israeli position before the end of Biden’s presidency on January 20. 

Reports circulated last week that the US had put together a new ceasefire proposal for Lebanon, comprising a 60-day pause to hostilities to allow for the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. 

Until then, Berri reportedly said, it’s for the field to speak.