JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it bombed Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight, its latest strike on arms depots in a major stronghold of the powerful Iranian-backed militia.
The air attack came hours after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that “attacking munitions warehouses in Lebanon is preparation for anything that might happen”.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been locked in hostilities for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war, which has spread to several other fronts and prompted fears of an all-out Middle East conflict.
While most of the exchanges of fire have played out along Lebanon’s volatile southern border with Israel, some Israeli strikes have occurred deeper into Lebanon, including the Beqaa.
There was no immediate confirmation from security sources in Lebanon that weapons depots were targeted on Tuesday. The sources said the strike was in a residential area near the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, an area populated mainly by Shi’ite Muslims from whom Hezbollah draws its support.
The airstrikes left at least two people dead and 19 injured, according to the security sources, but it was not immediately clear if those killed were civilians or fighters.
Israel has regularly bombed Hezbollah fighters and rocket launch sites in south Lebanon. Some 622 people in Lebanon have been killed since the start of the clashes last October, including 416 Hezbollah combatants and 132 civilians, according to a Reuters toll.
Targeting arms depots has picked up more recently.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted a weapons depot used by Hezbollah militants in an airstrike. Lebanon’s state news agency said at least 10 Syrian nationals, including two children, were killed in this incident.
Another airstrike late on Monday hit a Hezbollah weapons depot in the Beqaa region, which borders Syria.
In July, Israel bombed another depot storing ammunition belonging to Hezbollah in the town of Adloun in south Lebanon, three security sources told Reuters.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily; additional reporting by James Mackenzie; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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