Lebanese officials said an Israeli airstrike on Monday killed at least 60 people in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the latest in the region since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah escalated last month. It is believed to have been the worst airstrike ever.
At least 58 people were injured in the attack, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, which reported the death toll. Most of the airstrikes were concentrated in the Baalbek district, a patchwork of farmland and villages in the valley where the city of the same name is located. Hezbollah is in control of parts of Lebanon, which borders Syria and is one of the least developed areas.
The Israeli military said the operation in Lebanon targeted Hezbollah’s military infrastructure. On Tuesday, the Israeli military announced it had carried out “joint air and ground operations” against “terrorist infrastructure sites" in Lebanon, but did not mention the Bekaa Valley.
Israeli airstrikes have rained down on the valley for the past month, but residents said Monday night and Tuesday morning’s barrage was the heaviest they had ever experienced. Air strikes also occurred in the city of Baalbek. Baalbek is an urban center that has been largely spared by Israel’s recent air operations, raising fears that rare areas of relative safety in the area no longer exist.
Baalbek’s deputy mayor, Ibrahim Bayan, said: “This was the most powerful attack we have ever seen.” “We thought the attacks would not stop until we controlled all of Baalbek.”
Bayan said he started hearing the thud of airstrikes falling on the hills surrounding the city around 5:30 p.m. Monday. And around 7 p.m., his house shook and some windows were broken after a strike broke out within city limits. Bayan said he could hardly sleep that night as the roar of strikes and the blare of ambulance sirens echoed throughout the city.
At Rayak Hospital, a private facility in the Bekaa Valley, patients began flooding into the emergency room soon after the strike began on Monday night, the hospital director said.
“It was the most difficult night, not only for the hospital, but for everyone here,” said Dr. Ali Abdallah, the hospital’s director.
