Israeli attacks on eastern Lebanon village kill at least 12 people

Israeli air attacks have killed at least 12 people and wounded others in eastern Lebanon, state media reported, as a fragile ceasefire comes under growing strain.

The air attacks hit the village of Mashghara in the Bekaa Valley late on Monday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

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The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck more than 100 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and “terrorists” in the Bekaa Valley and across southern Lebanon in the wave of attacks.

The attacks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorised more intensive strikes against Hezbollah across Lebanon, putting further pressure on a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last month.

Reporting from Mashghara, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said there were at least 10 attacks in the span of half an hour on an area with residential buildings.

“There’s no final death toll because people remain missing. Excavators are still digging through the rubble,” she reported.

According to Khodr, the attack was seen “as part of a pressure campaign by Israel against Hezbollah”.

“The Israeli military has been trying to change the security situation and to pressure Hezbollah to stop using its explosive drones that have been targeting Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon and Israeli positions in northern Israel.”

Elsewhere, NNA reported that the southern Lebanese towns of Arnoun, Yohmor al-Shaqif, Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Mayfadoun were under heavy artillery bombardment by Israeli forces, also reaching the vicinity of the Beaufort Castle in Nabatieh district.

Mayfadoun had been subjected to a series of Israeli air attacks since dawn, while Shahour and Srifa in the Tyre district in southern Lebanon are being subjected to shelling, NNA said.

Moreover, Al Jazeera reported air attacks on the towns of Kawthariyat al-Ruz, Sarafina, Kafr and Majdal Selem, all in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military also issued forced displacement orders for residents in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River. Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, facilities or military equipment is putting their life at risk!” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, posted on X.

Lebanon was drawn into the United States and Israel’s war on Iran on March 2, after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel.

Hezbollah said the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, on February 28, as well as Israel’s near-daily violations of a ceasefire it agreed to in Lebanon in November 2024.

More than 3,100 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, and more than 9,600 have been wounded. At least a million people have been displaced.