Israeli air strikes have killed at least 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese state media reports, in what Israel said was a warning to the armed group against trying to re-establish itself.
Eight other people were wounded on Tuesday in the Israeli air strikes that hit the Wadi Fara area in the northern Bekaa Valley, including a camp for displaced Syrians, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The Israeli military said its air strikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses the group used to store weapons.
The air strikes were the deadliest on the area since a United States-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November – a truce repeatedly violated by Israel, which has carried out near-daily strikes across parts of the country.
Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.
Israel dealt Hezbollah significant blows in last year’s war, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday’s strikes sent a “clear message” to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force.
Israel “will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding”, he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.
There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.
Under the November ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.
The US has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah’s disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting air strikes and withdrawing troops from the positions they still hold in south Lebanon.
