Israeli strikes kill at least 67 in 'most violent day' for Lebanon's Baalbek region

More than a dozen people still trapped under rubble, says governor

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbek last week. AFP

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Israeli air strikes killed at least 67 people and wounded at least 120 more across the Baalbek-Hermel region in the Bekaa Valley on Monday, the governor of the region said, in what was described as the “most violent day” for the area since the war began.

The National's correspondents watched a series of strikes hit the region on Monday afternoon, with smoke plumes rising from villages in the eastern Bekaa Valley along the road from the historic city of Baalbek to Beirut. Witnesses said the strikes intensified shortly after, hitting villages around Baalbek.

Baalbek-Hermel Governor Bachir Khodr said it was “the most violent day” since Israel launched a major air campaign against parts of Lebanon on September 23 and a ground invasion of the south on October 1.

“There are still more than 15 people trapped under the rubble whose fate is unknown, and work is under way to retrieve them,” he said. There were 35 attacks in the space of 24 hours, Mr Khodr said, adding that around two-thirds of the victims from the strikes were women and children.

Lebanon's civil defence also reported several fires caused by shelling in the area, a traditionally agricultural heartland bordering Syria.

About 30 strikes were reported across Baalbek-Hermel governorate, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Many of the attacks killed several members of the same family, including a mother and her four children in the town of Al Ram, and two mothers who died with their children in Younine.

Sixteen people from a single family, including several children, were killed in a strike in the town of Al Alaq, NNA reported, the highest single death toll in the area on Monday. Twelve people were killed in a strike on the village of Al Hafir, with another eight dead in strikes on Baalbek.

The strikes on Baalbek city hit the Gorraud barracks, near a Palestinian refugee camp and a historic citadel, state media said.

Attacks were also reported in at least 17 other towns and villages. A child was killed and four others wounded in a strike on the village of Brital.

Rescue teams were working to remove rubble from the sites of attacks, NNA reported on Tuesday. The death toll from Monday's strikes was expected to rise, with NNA describing the reported number as “incomplete”.

Strikes also continued across southern Lebanon overnight and into Tuesday morning, with multiple attacks reported on the town of Jbaa in Nabatieh governorate.

Elsewhere, in the south Lebanese city of Khiam, intense ground clashes were reported between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The latter said they had downed an Israeli Hermes 900 drone near to Khiam, while images of Israeli tanks on the edge of the town emerged online.

At least 2,710 people have now been killed across the country in a year of Israeli attacks, which intensified last month. Another 12,592 have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry.