Israeli raids kill at least 31 people in Lebanon, country authorities say

These strikes notably targeted several localities in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is well established, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

A heavy toll. At least 31 people were killed on Saturday November 9 in Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, strongholds of Lebanese Hezbollah, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. In the east of the country, “the Israeli enemy’s raids against the Baalbeck-Hermel region left 20 dead, including 11 in the town of Knaisseh” and 14 injured, the ministry said in a press release.

The pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah is well established in this area. For his part, he claimed responsibility for several rocket attacks on northern Israel on Saturday and notably claimed to have targeted a military base north of Haifa as well as its outskirts and to have shot down an Israeli drone.

In southern Lebanon, five people died in an Israeli strike on the town of Hanaouay, near Tyre, the Ministry of Health also said. Five rescuers from the al-Rissala Association, affiliated with the Shiite Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah, and a rescuer from the Islamic Health Committee, affiliated with Hezbollah, were killed in a strike in Deir Qanoun, he added . Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, a “enemy fighter plane” destroyed two houses in the town of Nabatiyeh, according to the Lebanese national news agency Ani.

The Israeli Air Force, for its part, claimed to have struck “Hezbollah terrorist sites in the Tire and Baalbeck regions”. “Targets included terrorists, apartments used for attacks and weapons storage facilities”according to her. Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah to allow the return of 60,000 inhabitants to the north of its territory, displaced by incessant rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza.