RAYAK, Lebanon — Israeli airstrikes on eastern Lebanon have killed eight members of the militant Hezbollah group, including several local officials, two officials with the group said Saturday.
The Lebanese Health Ministry put the death toll at 10, but did not distinguish between militants and civilians.
The Hezbollah officials told the Associated Press that the eight militants were killed in strikes near the village of Rayak in northeastern Lebanon late Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media about such details.
An AP team that visited the scene of the strike Saturday morning saw that the top floor of a three-story building was destroyed.
The Israeli military said Saturday that several members of Hezbollah’s missile unit were “eliminated” in three command centers in the Baalbek area in Lebanon.
The Israeli army added that the Hezbollah members killed were identified “as operating to accelerate readiness and force build-up processes, while planning … attacks toward Israel.”
One of the Hezbollah officials said that three of the dead were local commanders, whom they identified as Ali al-Moussawi, Mohammed al-Moussawi and Hussein Yaghi.
Yaghi was the son of prominent Hezbollah official and co-founder Mohammed Yaghi, who died in 2023. Mohammed Yaghi was also a close aide to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September 2024.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Saturday that in addition to the 10 killed, the Israeli strikes wounded 24, including three children.
Ali Abdullah, executive director of Rayak Hospital, told the AP that the strike occurred after sunset, adding that it had received 10 bodies and 21 wounded. He said the dead included two non-Lebanese — a Syrian man and an Ethiopian woman. The wounded included five Syrians and three Ethiopians.
Ethiopians often come to Lebanon as domestic workers.
A funeral was held Saturday afternoon in the eastern village of Nabi Chit for two Hezbollah members who were killed in the strikes.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah began firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, and was later reined in but not fully stopped by a U.S.-brokered ceasefire two months later.
Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.
The death toll from Friday’s strikes was unusually high and comes at a moment of intensified tensions in the region as the United States has threatened to strike Iran — a backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas — if negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program fail to produce a deal.
Tawil and Mroue write for the Associated Press and reported from Rayak and Beirut, respectively.
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