Lebanese firefighters put out a fire in a car after an Israeli strike in the southern city of Saida on Aug. 21, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
After a particularly violent night with strikes in the Baalbeck region that left at least one dead and 20 injured, further strikes in the South resulted in at least three more deaths: a Fatah member killed in Saida, a Hezbollah member targeted in Beit Lif and a Syrian migrant struck by artillery. These attacks triggered severe retaliations from Hezbollah on multiple bases located more than 15 kilometers from the Blue Line.
The 24-hour wave of violence began with four Israeli strikes around midnight in the Bekaa: two in the Nabi Sheet area, one in the nearby locality of Sarain, southwest of Baalbeck, and a fourth on Boudai, further west. According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, these strikes killed one person, a civilian resident of Nabi Sheet identified as Ali Moussawi. Of the 20 injured, one is in critical condition and requires surgery. The injured also include eight children and a pregnant woman. Local hospital Deir el-Amal has issued blood donation appeals for the victims.
'Secondary explosions observed'
In a message on X, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, stated that the air force struck "Hezbollah's weapons and ammunition depots in the Bekaa" during the night. "Secondary explosions were observed immediately after these raids, indicating the presence of combat materials in the targeted warehouses."
Adraee also reported bombing "a complex used by the party's air defense system." He accused Hezbollah of deploying its combat equipment in the heart of civilian residential areas.
Fatah targeted in Saida
In retaliation, Hezbollah launched two significant attacks on the military base of "Tsnobar" in the occupied Syrian Golan and the Amiad base, about twenty kilometers from the Blue Line, north of the Sea of Galilee. The strike in the Golan injured one person in a locality near the targeted military infrastructure.
In a rare move, Israel eliminated Khalil Maqdah, a leader of Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in Saida. His brother Mounir is one of Fatah's Palestinian leaders in Lebanon and has been repeatedly accused by Israel of smuggling weapons to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Israel has launched a series of deadly raids on villages in southern Lebanon since the morning.
Hezbollah fighter and Syrian migrant killed
Among these bombings, a drone strike on a vehicle in Beit Lif (Marjayoun) killed a Hezbollah fighter. The party announced the death of Hussein Moustapha, born in 1975 and killed in Beit Lif, "on the road to Jerusalem," the term the party uses to denote an Israeli strike. According to our correspondent in the south, Moustapha was indeed the victim of the Beit Lif strike. On Tuesday night, Hezbollah had already reported the deaths of four of its fighters in earlier strikes on the village of Dhaira.
Artillery fire on a camp near Wazzani also killed a Syrian migrant, who has yet to be identified.
Since Oct. 8, 2023, the death toll from clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army stands at 584, including 422 Hezbollah fighters, 34 from Palestinian factions in Lebanon and 108 civilians.
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