BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes struck deep into Lebanon for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, hitting a facility belonging to Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley and killing at least one member of the Iran-backed group, sources in Lebanon said.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had “struck two Hezbollah military command centres” in the Baalbek area, in response to Hezbollah rocket launches towards northern Israel earlier in the day.
The violence marked an uptick of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has been fought in parallel to the Gaza war and fuelled fears of an all-out conflict between the heavily armed adversaries.
Hezbollah said in a statement it had fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets at 7 am (0500 GMT), targeting several Israeli military posts, in response to Israeli shelling of the Bekaa Valley region on Monday night.
At least one civilian was killed and several others were wounded in Monday’s strikes by Israel, one of which hit the southern entrance to the city of Baalbek, about 2 km (1.2 miles) from its ancient Roman ruins, two security sources in Lebanon and the Baalbek governor, Bashir Khader, said.
The Israeli military said in response to Monday’s rocket launches, its fighter jets had struck sites in the Baalbek area which Hezbollah used to store “significant assets used to strength its weapons arsenal”.
“A military compound in the area of Khiam and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Bint Jbeil were also struck,” the Israeli military added.
The Hezbollah member was killed and several more were wounded in an airstrike in the Bekaa Valley village of Nabi Chit, said one of the Lebanese sources. The targeted region is a stronghold of the Shi’ite Islamist group near the Lebanese-Syrian border.