Israeli strikes on east Lebanon kill 12: state media

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people on Tuesday, Lebanese state media reported, as the Israeli army said it hit Hezbollah targets in the area.

Israel’s military said it was striking targets belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, in its latest attack on Lebanon despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

A military statement said Israeli fighter jets launched “numerous strikes” on “Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Bekaa”.

The targets included training facilities used to “plan and carry out terrorist attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel”, it added.

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Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “enemy warplanes launched raids on the Wadi Fara area in the northern Bekaa Valley, one of which targeted a camp for displaced Syrians, resulting in the deaths of 12 martyrs, including seven Syrians, and eight wounded”.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said the latest strikes were “a clear message” to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government “which is responsible for upholding the agreement”.

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“We will strike every terrorist and thwart any threat to the residents of the north and to the State of Israel,” he said in a statement of the area bordering Lebanon.

Katz also vowed to “respond with maximum force against any attempt at rebuilding” Hezbollah’s capabilities.

The military statement said that since Israel had “eliminated” Radwan force commanders in September, “the unit has been operating to reestablish its capabilities”.

Storing weapons and other “activities” at the sites targeted on Tuesday were “a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and constitute a future threat to the State of Israel”, it added.

Under the November ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

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Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.