Fresh raids on Bekaa as Hezbollah retaliates to overnight strikes

Israeli warplanes raided Wednesday the Taoumat Niha heights near the town of Ain al-Tineh in the Western Bekaa, hours after an air strike hit a lorry loaded with Hezbollah missiles in the Rasm al-Hadath area in the Baalbek region.

Hezbollah later announced the death of one of its members from the city of Baalbek on the road to Jerusalem.

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army bombed the southern border town of Aitaroun and Hezbollah attacked later in the day a command center in northern Israel.

The group said it attacked soldiers in Ya'ara with a suicide drone in response to an overnight attack on a truck in the Bekaa some 10 kilometers from Baalbek.

A Lebanese security source said the lorry was loaded with Hezbollah missiles.

Also on Wednesday, a Hezbollah member and three members of the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad group were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a car in Syria near the border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7.

More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups but also more than 100 civilians. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the tense border.

Israel has vowed to bring quiet to the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It says it prefers to resolve the issue diplomatically through U.S. and other mediators but will use force if necessary. Hezbollah officials have said the group does not seek a wider war but is prepared for one.