Four killed in series of Israeli strikes Thursday night in Lebanon
According to statements released by the Hezbollah militia parties announcing the funerals of its members "martyred on the road to Jerusalem"— the phrase used since October 2023 to refer to members killed in Israeli attacks — Hassan Ghamlouch, Ali Hammoud, Nassif Bahja and Hassan Horchi were killed in the Israeli bombings. As usual, these statements did not specify where they died. The first three victims were from different regions of the south, and the fourth was from Western Bekaa, according to information from our local correspondents.
Thursday night's raids targeted Mahmoudieh, near the Lebanese Army checkpoint by the Khardali bridge, the outskirts of Aishieh and the village of Jormok, in the Sour district. In the Bekaa, our correspondent reports that the raids hit the hills of Brital (Baalbeck) and the area around Nabi Sreij. The Israeli army later claimed to have struck "infrastructure for the production and storage of strategic combat means."
According to a tally compiled by L'Orient Today from figures provided mainly by the U.N. and the Ministry of Health, at least 290 people have been killed in attacks, strikes and Israeli fire since the cease-fire took effect on Nov.27, 2024. This fragile truce, broken almost daily by the Israeli army, ended 13 months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of violent Israeli offensive on Lebanon. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah entered the war on Oct. 8, 2023, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, since Friday morning, Israeli drones continued to fly over several areas of the Bekaa according to our local correspondent. The distinctive buzzing of these unmanned aircraft was also heard in the morning above Beirut and its suburbs.
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For many Druze, the brutal events in Sweida were fiercely traumatic and have forced them to painfully confront their long-standing core political priorities: security and the preservation of religious and social autonomy. And in light of this, some are beginning to reassess long-held assumptions that current leadership can preserve their religious autonomy and, more importantly, keep them safe. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
