Dozens killed and injured in Lebanon as Israel escalates attacks

A dozen people were killed and scores injured in separate Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday as Israel intensified its aggression against its northern neighbour.

At least 10 people were killed and 50 wounded in Israeli strikes in the Bekaa Valley, two security sources told Reuters,

Earlier in the day, two people were killed in a drone strike in a Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon's health ministry said.

The strikes are among the deadliest in eastern Lebanon in recent weeks and risk further undermining the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah which has been violated hundreds of times by the Israeli military.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck Hezbollah command centres in the Baalbek area, part of eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

A senior Hezbollah official was among the dead, Reuters's sources said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

In the south, the Israeli military claimed it had targeted a Hamas command centre "from which terrorists operated" in the Ain al-Helweh area.

Hamas condemned the strike, saying it had hit the headquarters of the Joint Security Force in charge of the camp's security.

Ain al-Helweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the country and is home to tens of thousands of people.

The strike is the deadliest on the area since November 2024, when an Israeli raid killed 13 people and wounded nine, days before a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon entered into force.

Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite the ceasefire, which aimed to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah. 

The attacks come a few days after Hezbollah rejected government plans to confiscate its weapons across the country in the coming months.

US and Israeli officials have heaped pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. The Lebanese army completed the demilitarisation of the country's south last year and is now drawing up plans to confront the Iran-backed group between the Litani river and Sidon.

Israel has threatened to launch a full-scale war on Hezbollah if it refuses to surrender.

(Reuters and TNA staff)