Two people were killed in Israeli air strikes on mountainous areas in eastern Lebanon on Thursday, according to the health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it had struck Hezbollah targets.
“The strikes launched by the Israeli enemy on the eastern and western mountain chains resulted in an initial death toll of two,” the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had earlier said that “Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent strikes on the eastern mountain range” in the Bekaa region near the border with Syria.
The NNA also said two Israeli strikes targeted the Hermel range in the country’s northeast.
The Israeli military meanwhile said it had targeted Hezbollah sites in east and north Lebanon, including “a military camp and a site for the production of precision missiles” in the Bekaa valley.
The military said in a statement that it “struck several terrorist targets” in the Bekaa, including “a camp used for training Hezbollah militants”.
It added that it “struck military infrastructure at a site for the production of precision missiles”.
It also targeted “a Hezbollah military site in the Sharbin area in northern Lebanon”.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that brought to an end more than a year of hostilities with the militant group Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war.
As part of that deal, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to dismantle its forces in the region.
Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan which the militant movement and its allies oppose.
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© Agence France-Presse
