The eastern Bekaa Valley has been a constant target of Israel’s aggression in Lebanon [Getty/file photo]
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 60 people were killed on Monday in Israeli raids on several areas in the eastern Bekaa Valley, most of them in the Baalbek region.
The health ministry said the tolls covered 12 areas in the Bekaa Valley. At least two children were among the dead, it said.
At least 58 others were wounded, the health ministry added, noting that the toll was preliminary as rescue efforts were still underway.
Of the 60 killed, at least 16 deaths were recorded in Al-Alaq, west of Baalbek city, according to the health ministry.
Monday’s deaths raise the overall toll to more than 1,700 killed in Lebanon since Israel’s aggression in Lebanon intensified since late September, before subsequently invading southern Lebanon in early October.
The intensification comes as Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in almost-daily cross-border fire since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, On October 7 last year.
The real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Baalbek governor Bachir Khodr decried what he called the “most violent” raids on the area since the start of the conflict.
Baalbek is an impoverished region in the Bekaa Valley that borders Syria.
The heavy strikes there on Monday were not preceded by an evacuation warning.
They came as Israel pounded south Lebanon, including the coastal city of Tyre, according to the official National News Agency.
The war has displaced at least 1.3 million people, more than 800,000 inside Lebanon according to the UN’s migration agency.
More than half a million people have crossed into Syria, according to Lebanese authorities, most of them Syrians.
