Israel attacks the Lebanese city of Baalbek after ordering an evacuation

The country’s Health Ministry said Israeli attacks killed 19 people, including eight women, around the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek.

The incident occurred hours after tens of thousands of residents fled following an Israeli military evacuation order covering the entire city and two neighboring towns.

Mayor Mustafa al-Shell told the BBC that more than 20 strikes were reported on Wednesday afternoon in the Baalbek area, with five strikes inside the city, which is home to a UNESCO-listed ancient Roman temple complex. recognize.

The Israeli army said it attacked Hezbollah command centers and infrastructure in Baalbek and Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon.

The army also said it had targeted Hezbollah fuel depots in the Bekaa Valley, where Baalbek is located. It gave no details, but Lebanon’s state news agency said diesel tanks were attacked in the town of Douris, where Mr. Shell said photos showed a huge plume of black smoke rising the air.

The attacks came as Hezbollah’s new secretary general said the group would continue its war plans against Israel under his leadership and would not “cry” for a ceasefire.

Speaking a day after the appointment was announced, Naim Qassem said he would follow the agenda of his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month.

Qassem delivered the speech from an undisclosed location amid reports that he had fled to Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer.

After weeks of an air campaign that devastated much of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Israeli military appears to be expanding its campaign against Hezbollah in the east of the country – another area where the group has a strong presence and support. .

Baalbek is a key population center in the Bekaa Valley, near the border with Syria. The area is mainly rural and one of the poorest areas of Lebanon.

Hezbollah established part of its infrastructure and recruited fighters from there.

The area is also of strategic importance to Hezbollah because it is part of a route linking the group to allies in Syria, Iraq and eventually to Iran.

On Wednesday morning, The Israeli army issued an evacuation order for all of Baalbek and the neighboring towns of Ain Bourday and Douriswarned that they would “act strongly against the interests of Hezbollah”.

Roula Zeaiter, program manager of the Lebanese Democratic Women’s Rally (RDFL), said the orders had caused panic among the people, including families displaced from the regions. other of the country.

“A few minutes after the order to leave, the streets were flooded with people taking things, locking their houses and closing their shops,” she told the charity ActionAid.

“We slithered around like scared mice, moving from place to place. Lebanon is becoming like Gaza, with Israeli forces using similar tactics.”

Videos posted online showed severe traffic jams on main routes out of the city.

Mustafa al-Shell estimated that about 50,000 people fled within two hours, but he added that many others decided to stay “for various reasons”.

He said the first wave of Israeli attacks on Wednesday afternoon hit villas and other residential buildings in downtown Baalbek and its suburbs.

“It is unclear what the Israelis were aiming for,” he added. “But I can tell you that there are no ammunition depots or weapons depots in Baalbek.”

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that the areas of Ras al-Ain Hills, Amshki, al-Asira, al-Kayyal road as well as the northern and southern entrances to Baalbek were all attacked. Attacks also targeted Ain Bourday and Douris, including diesel tanks in the vicinity.

Later, the Lebanese Health Ministry said 11 people, including three women, were killed in an attack on the Salibi farm in the Baalbek area. Eight other people, including five women, were killed in another strike in Bednayel.

Separately, 11 other people were killed in Israeli attacks in the town of Sohmor, south of the Bekaa Valley, the ministry said.

Following the attack on Baalbek, the Israeli military said it had conducted “intelligence-based attacks on fuel depots located inside military sites belonging to Hezbollah’s 4400 Logistics Enhancement Unit in the Valley.” Bekaa”. The unit is responsible for transporting weapons from Iran, it added.

The second statement said the aircraft “attacked command and control centers and terrorist infrastructure” in the Baalbek area.

It also accused Hezbollah of systematically using civilian infrastructure and areas for military operations, something the group has previously denied.

Mr. Shell said no strike occurred UNESCO World Heritage Site of Baalbekincludes the ruins of Roman temples dating from the 1st Century AD and are among the largest and best preserved in the world.

However, he warned of what he called “Israel’s betrayal” and said Lebanese authorities were “begging… international agencies to quickly step up to protect the Roman ruins of Baalbek”. .

UNESCO warned in a post on X on Wednesday including a photo of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, that World Heritage Sites across the Middle East, especially those in Lebanon, are under threat.

“Unesco reiterates to all parties their obligation to respect and protect the integrity of these sites. They are the heritage of all humanity and should never be considered a target,” the organization said.

On Monday evening, several buildings were razed around the Gouraud Barracks area in Baalbek, near the Roman ruins, in Israeli attacks that left more than 60 people dead across the Bekaa Valley.

When asked by reporters in Washington about the Baalbek attack, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged Israel not to threaten the lives of civilians or damage important civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage. chemistry.

He also confirmed that US Middle East envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk are “coming to Israel to discuss issues including a diplomatic solution in Lebanon, as well as how we end the conflict in Gaza.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najob Mikati expressed optimism that a ceasefire could be achieved in the “coming hours or days”.

Two sources told Reuters news agency that US mediators are studying a proposed 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which would be used to complete full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701. United Nations.

The resolution ended the last war they fought in 2006 and included a call for southern Lebanon to be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and peacekeepers of the United Nations.

Israel has launched an offensive against Hezbollah – which it considers a terrorist organization – after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

They say they want to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israel’s northern border areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah has launched in support of the Palestinians. days after ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military said about 60 projectiles fired by Hezbollah entered Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday. No injuries were reported.

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,800 people have died in Lebanon since then, including 2,100 in the past five weeks, and another 1.2 million have been displaced.

Israeli authorities said more than 60 people were killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.