Smoke rises as people collect the remains of their belongings from a building destroyed in an Israeli strike. file | Photo credit: AP
At least 10 people were killed and 24 injured, including three children, in Israeli attacks in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on Friday (February 20, 2026), the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported. Two more people were killed in an Israeli attack on a Palestinian refugee camp.
Israel said it hit “command centers” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley. There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah.
Local television footage from the site of a strike in the Bekaa showed the targeted site to be an apartment building, and emergency crews fighting the blaze as survivors dug into the rubble.
Read | Israel attacked southern and eastern Lebanon after evacuation warnings
Earlier on Friday (February 20, 2026), another Israeli strike hit a Palestinian refugee camp in the port city of Sidon, killing two people.
Israel’s military said it hit a “Hamas command center” in the Ain el-Hilwe camp. Hamas acknowledged that two of its members were killed in the strike, but called the claim that a command center had been attacked a “weak pretext”. It said the targeted building belonged to a joint security force made up of various Palestinian factions tasked with maintaining security in the camp.
After October 7, 2023, a Hamas-led attack on Israel led to a war in Gaza, 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 a full-scale war in September 2024, then came to a complete halt two months later with a US-brokered ceasefire.
Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild it and has carried out almost daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities. Hezbollah announced an attack on Israel after the ceasefire.
The death toll from Friday’s (Feb 20, 2026) strikes was unusually high and comes as tensions in the region escalate as the United States threatens 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.
Published – February 21, 2026 06:49 am IST
