Two people were killed early Friday in an Israeli strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, in Janta, east of Baalbeck, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced. The strike was carried out during a series of six bombings around 5 a.m. on the border strip between the two countries, at the level of the Bekaa and North Lebanon, report our local correspondents Sarah Abdallah and Michel Hallak. According to the Ministry, 10 people were also injured in one of the Israeli raids on Janta.

Information from our correspondent in the Bekaa, Sarah Abdallah, identified these two victims as Abbas Moussawi, from Nabi Sheet (Baalbeck district), and Wissam al-Bourji, from Ali al-Nahri (Zahle district). The 10 injured were taken to the Rayak Government Hospital.

Bekaa and North Lebanon

Six strikes were carried out almost simultaneously: five of them targeted illegal crossing points of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, while a sixth raid took place in the area known as Wadi al-Wawiyat, an illegal crossing point used for smuggling from the Syrian side of the border, opposite the border area of Wadi Khaled, reports our correspondent in North Lebanon. These attacks occur despite the cease-fire in effect since late November between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to our correspondent, the Israeli air force cut the main road linking Lebanon to Syria in the Bekaa, at the level of Tfayl on the Lebanese side and Assal al-Ward in the western Qalamoun region. The missile launched there created a crater seven meters deep and 10 meters in diameter, damaging poles and power lines between the two countries.

The last Israeli strike in the Bekaa, apart from regular bombings in South Lebanon, was on Jan. 12. On that day, strikes had targeted the border posts of Janta and Kasr. Others were also carried out in the South.

Hezbollah's weapons manufacturing and trafficking

The Israeli army claimed responsibility for these attacks, saying they hit "multiple Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon that posed a threat," according to a message on social media. One of the sites targeted by the Israeli army contains an "underground infrastructure used for the development and manufacturing of weapons," the army specified in a message on X at its Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee. They also claimed to have struck facilities "at the Lebanese-Syrian border used by Hezbollah for weapons trafficking to Lebanon." "The launch by Hezbollah of a reconnaissance drone into Israeli airspace yesterday [Thursday], which was intercepted by the air force, constituted a violation of the agreements made between Israel and Lebanon," noted Lt. Col. Adraee on X.

Reacting to these strikes, MP Ibrahim Moussawi, from Hezbollah's bloc, condemned a "serious violation and flagrant aggression that breaches the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701," which forms the basis of the cease-fire agreement. He denounced the fact that "no serious and responsible action" is undertaken by the "guarantors" of the agreement at the international level, namely France and the United States, demonstrating "their indifference or their impotence." Moussawi further called on the Lebanese state, including President Joseph Aoun, the government, and the army, to "immediately intervene by all available means to quickly put an end to Israeli criminal chaos."

For his part, President Aoun discussed the situation on the ground, particularly in South Lebanon, with the acting army commander, General Hassane Audi, and the director of army intelligence, Tony Kahwaji, according to the presidency's X account.