IDF strikes Hezbollah sites deep in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley as fragile truce holds
Lebanese state media says Israeli fire kills woman near border, military says troops opened fire to disperse approaching suspects; source says IDF ‘unaware’ woman was killed
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Sunday it had carried out airstrikes deep in Lebanon, saying it targeted Hezbollah facilities where activity by the terror group was identified.
The Hezbollah targets included rocket launchers and other weapons, according to the military.
“The activity of terror operatives at these sites is a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF said.
Lebanon’s state media said Israeli aircraft carried out three strikes in the Beqaa Valley in the country’s east.
It came two days ahead of a deadline in a fragile ceasefire that ended the war in Lebanon for Israeli forces to pull out of the country’s south — a deadline Israel has indicated it will not fully meet.
“Enemy warplanes carried out two strikes on the outskirts of the town of Harbata and a third strike on the town of Halbata,” in the north of the Bekaa Valley, the official National News Agency said.
Harbata is located some 100 kilometers from the border with Israel.
الطيران الحربي الاسرائيلي شن غارة على #البقاع الشمالي pic.twitter.com/NT2PMowye4
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) February 16, 2025
Lebanese media also reported that a woman was killed and several others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the south Lebanon town of Houla, close to the border with Israel.
The IDF said it identified dozens of suspects gathering in Houla, several of whom breached a Lebanese army barrier and approached Israeli soldiers.
The troops opened fire to disperse the suspects, and after some refused to do so, the IDF said it began an “arrest procedure,” which normally includes firing toward a suspect’s legs.
Several suspects were also detained amid the incident and were being questioned, the military added.
A military source told The Times of Israel that the IDF was unaware of claims that a civilian woman was killed in the area.
Lebanon’s official news agency reported that the IDF detained three civilians in the town.
The IDF has repeatedly warned Lebanese citizens not to approach areas where troops are still deployed in southern Lebanon amid the ongoing ceasefire.
The military is set to withdraw from most areas in south Lebanon where troops are still deployed on February 18, while reportedly remaining in five strategic positions.
Under the deal, Lebanon’s military is to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdraws. Israel has said the Lebanese army has not effectively deployed in south Lebanon, as the terms of the ceasefire said it would, and is not preventing Hezbollah from reorganizing.
Hezbollah is supposed to pull back north of the Litani River — about 20 miles from the border — and dismantle any remaining terrorist infrastructure in the south.
Hezbollah’s chief said Sunday it was the Lebanese government’s responsibility to ensure the Israeli army withdraws from the country in accordance with the agreement.
“Israel must fully withdraw on February 18, it has no excuse,” Hezbollah’s Naim Qassem said in a televised address.
“It is the responsibility of the Lebanese state” to exert every effort “to make Israel withdraw,” he added.
The terror group began to carry out near-daily attacks on Israel, unprovoked, on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Israel sent forces into Lebanon in September, in a bid to end the terror group’s persistent rocket fire, which had displaced some 60,000 northerners. The two-month ground and air campaign ended with the November ceasefire, after much of Hezbollah’s leadership had been killed and its capabilities curtailed.
