For the first time since the start of the war in Gaza and the involvement of the southern front, Israeli warplanes launched intense airstrikes on specific locations around the Budai area near Baalbek. In a statement to Reuters, two security sources reported that "Israel carried out at least two simultaneous airstrikes around the Lebanese city of Baalbek today." The sources confirmed that "the Israeli strike near Baalbek killed at least two members of Hezbollah." Reports indicated the "martyrdom of a soldier who was injured in the Israeli airstrike."
The Israeli army noted that it is "currently targeting terrorist objectives of Hezbollah deep in Lebanon" without providing further details. #Breaking news? The Israel Defense Forces is targeting facilities belonging to Hezbollah's air defense unit in the Beqaa. Israeli warplanes recently conducted airstrikes targeting facilities used by Hezbollah's air defense unit. This was in response to the launching of surface-to-air missiles at a drone.
Israeli media confirmed that "the strike on Baalbek is a response to Hezbollah shooting down a drone with a surface-to-air missile." Reports suggested that the strikes targeted warehouses used for storing food supplies.
Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah threatened Israel, asserting that the Israeli airstrikes targeting the vicinity of Baalbek - eastern Lebanon and some southern villages "will not go unanswered." In a statement, Fadlallah said: "We tell the enemy that the fire of resistance is burning and will respond to any aggression against our country," adding: "The enemy thinks it can restore its prestige through airstrikes on Baalbek and the villages today, but the resistance will creatively find responses to its transgressions against the villages and towns, and it will surprise it as it did today, and the aggression on Baalbek will not go unanswered." He confirmed that "the end of this war will be only through victory."
Additionally, an Israeli airstrike targeted an area of forest between Jaramana and Mount Rafi in the Tayybeh region of southern Lebanon.
