At least 10 people were killed and 24 injured, including three children, in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
Israel says it has hit “command centers” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley. Senior Hezbollah leader Hussein Yaghi was killed in the strikes, two security sources told Reuters.
Yaghi is the son of former Hezbollah MP Mohammad Yaghi and his funeral will take place on Saturday, Hezbollah media said.
Local television footage from the scene of a strike showed the target site to be an apartment building. Emergency crews are fighting the fire and searching for survivors.
Earlier on Friday, two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in the port city of Sidon.
Israel’s military said it struck a “Hamas command center” in the Ain el-Hilwe camp. Hamas acknowledged that two members were killed in the strike, but said it was a “weak excuse” to claim it was a command center.
It said the targeted building belonged to a joint security force made up of various Palestinian factions to maintain security in the camp.
After 7 October 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, before being brought under control by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later.
Since then, Israel has accused it of trying to rebuild Hezbollah and has carried out almost daily strikes in Lebanon, which it says target terrorists and facilities. Hezbollah announced an attack on Israel after the ceasefire.
The death toll from Friday’s strikes was unusually high and came as tensions in the region rose as the US threatened to strike Iran – which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas – if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program fail to produce a deal.
During last year’s Israel-Iran war, Hezbollah stayed on the sidelines, but many in Lebanon fear the country could be dragged into another war.
