Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports 13 killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday
Israeli airstrikes on Saturday hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing more than a dozen people and causing damage to hospitals, the Lebanese Health Ministry reports, as fighting with the Hezbollah terror group continues.
Nine people were killed in the Maisra village in the northeast, with 15 wounded, the ministry says. Four people were killed and 18 wounded in an apartment building on the edge of Barja south of Beirut.
The ministry does not detail how many were terror operatives.
It says Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged, while seven people were wounded in strikes on Brital and Temnine in the Baalbek-Hermel province. In Nabatieh, eight people were wounded.
Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have previously faced heavy bombardment, have not been struck in the past 48 hours. Hezbollah functions as a state within a state there.
The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed and over 10,000 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including a ground operation in which the military says at least 450 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.
Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel over the last year have resulted in the deaths of 28 civilians. In addition, 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.