Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill at least 12, including senior Hezbollah official

At least 10 people were reported killed and 50 wounded in Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon on Friday, after the Israel Defense Forces said it had targeted Hezbollah command centers. Another two were reported killed in a strike on Hamas targets in southern Lebanon.

The strikes were among the deadliest since the start of a November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it struck three Hezbollah command centers belonging to the terror group’s missile force in the Baalbek area, in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley.

The IDF said the strikes had “eliminated a large number of operatives belonging to the missile array of the Hezbollah terror organization… recently identified working to accelerate readiness and force build-up processes, while planning fire toward the State of Israel and advancing terror attack plans that endanger IDF troops and the civilians of the State of Israel.”

Lebanese media and security sources cited by Reuters reported that the strikes killed 10 people and wounded another 50.

Hezbollah announced the deaths of eight operatives in the strikes. It identified one of the operatives, Hussein Mohammed Yaghi, as a “commander,” indicating he was a senior official in the terror group.

Hezbollah rarely refers to its senior operatives slain in Israeli strikes as commanders.

The terror group said the eight operatives were killed “while defending Lebanon and its people during a treacherous Israeli attack on the Beqaa region.”

After naming the dead operatives, a Hezbollah official declared Saturday that the terror group’s only choice was “resistance.”

“What happened yesterday in the Beqaa is a new massacre and a new aggression, exceeding all the previous levels of aggression against Lebanon,” Mahmud Qamati said in a speech broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar network during a protest in Beirut.

“What option do we have left to defend ourselves and our country? What option do we have other than resistance? We no longer have any (other) option.”

The IDF said that Hezbollah’s missile forces were “currently working to plan” rocket and missile attacks against Israel, and that the operatives’ activities “constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

בהמשך לתקיפת המפקדות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב הבקעא: חוסלו מחבלים במערך הטילאות בארגון

צה”ל תקף אתמול במרחב בעלבכ וחיסל מספר רב של מחבלים המשתייכים למערך הטילאות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, בשלוש מפקדות שונות של הארגון.

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Meanwhile, Lebanon said an Israeli strike on the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp killed two, with the IDF saying it had targeted a Hamas command center where terror operatives were gathered to advance attacks on Israel.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said “an Israeli drone” targeted a neighborhood of the Ain al-Hilweh camp, which is located on the outskirts of the southern coastal city of Sidon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in the raid, both of whom were identified by Hamas as members of the terror group.

“The command center that was struck had been used in recent months by Hamas terror operatives for preparations for terror activities against IDF troops in Lebanese territory, and included training intended to advance various terror attack plans against IDF troops and Israel,” the military said in a statement, attaching footage of the strike.

צה"ל תקף מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס בדרום לבנון

צה"ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס במרחב עין אל-חלוה שבדרום לבנון.

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המפקדה שהותקפה שימשה לאורך התקופה האחרונה את מחבלי ארגון הטרור חמאס עבור היערכות לפעולות טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל בשטח… pic.twitter.com/IT5xZbGOAL

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The IDF said that the site was embedded “in the heart of a civilian population, cynically exploiting the [camp’s] residents to advance the organization’s terror objectives and using them as human shields.”

According to the military, Hamas’s activities at the command center also constituted a violation of the November 2024 ceasefire.

Hamas condemned in a statement the Israeli strike on Ain al-Hilweh and rejected Israeli assertions about the target, saying the site belonged to the camp’s Joint Security Force tasked with maintaining security.

تحدثت معلومات أن من بين المستهدفين في غارة علي النهري مسؤول منطقة البقاع في الحزب حسين النمر، إضافة إلى محمد إبراهيم الموسوي وعلي زيد الموسوي، الذين كانوا مع القيادي حسين ياغي داخل شقة.#علي_النهري #لبنان #إسرائيل pic.twitter.com/x2cjYgafyn

— Sawsan Mhanna| سوسن مهنّا (@SawsanaMehanna) February 20, 2026

Israel has consistently targeted what it says are Hezbollah attempts to rebuild its force following the November 2024 ceasefire that ended a year of conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

The US-brokered ceasefire came after two months of open conflict in Lebanon, including an IDF ground operation in the country’s south in a bid to enable the safe return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the terror group’s near-daily attacks. The rocket attacks began on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 400 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it. The Lebanese army said last month that it had completed the disarmament mission south of the Litani River, in the area closest to Israel.

As part of the Lebanese government’s disarmament push, some Palestinian factions in Lebanon handed over weapons in several refugee camps last year to the Lebanese authorities.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.

Agencies contributed to this report.