Israeli Airstrike in Jnah Leaves Thirteen Dead; Hezbollah Expands Its Fire Range Targeting Israel
The Israeli warplanes targeted the al-Mashaa neighborhood in the city of Nabatiyeh on October 20, 2024. ©This is Beirut

Thirteen people, including a child, have been killed, and 57 others were injured in the Israeli airstrike on Jnah, Monday evening, according to the latest toll released on Tuesday morning by the Lebanese Ministry of Health's Emergency Operations Center. This figure does not account for the significant damage sustained by the hospital.

Among the injured, “seventeen have been hospitalized, and seven are in critical condition,” the statement added. Search operations continued in the area of the strike, near the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital, to find victims trapped under the rubble.

Meanwhile, artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah persisted relentlessly in the southern part of the country.

In the late morning, the Israeli Army launched no fewer than 15 air raids against the Hoch sector in Tyre, after calling on residents to evacuate. It also struck the city of Baalbeck following a night of violence, during which raids targeted the locality of Taraya, west of Baalbeck.

Israeli forces targeted the Laylaki neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut after several hours of precarious calm.

Additionally, the Israeli Army stated in a communiqué that it intercepted “the majority” of the “five projectiles” fired from Lebanon towards “central Israel,” where sirens were sounded.

“The sirens also sounded in the north, and several of the ‘15 projectiles’ fired from Lebanon were intercepted, while others landed in vacant fields,” the Israeli Army added. It also announced that it struck several Hezbollah military installations overnight, including a significant “naval” base in Beirut.

“Among the targets in Beirut was a central base of Hezbollah's naval unit, where the group stored military speedboats, a training center, and an experimental area,” it stated, specifying that overnight, “300 Hezbollah targets” were attacked, including three headquarters inside Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah’s air unit (Unit 127), which is also responsible for launching drones into Israel.

According to Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli Army, forces from the 98th division eliminated “15 Hezbollah operatives” after detecting the presence of an operations room.

Israeli media concurrently reported that “16 soldiers were injured in the fighting in southern Lebanon and were transferred to Ziv Hospital in Safed.”

Two Israeli Military Bases Targeted

Hezbollah, in turn, claimed responsibility for firing rockets at military targets in Israel, including a naval base and a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which was targeted for the second time in a few hours.

The group stated that it bombed “the Glilot base of Unit 8200 of military intelligence” on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. On Monday evening, it had claimed similar strikes on this same position.

Furthermore, on Tuesday, it announced a strike against “the Nirit Dome,” located about 20 km east of Tel Aviv. The Iranian-backed group also indicated that it targeted “the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa.”

The attacks by Hezbollah against the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Haifa demonstrate that its response is now extending deeper into Israel. However, the Iranian-backed group primarily restricts its attacks to military areas.

A Violent Night

These exchanges of fire follow a violent night in the country, during which Israeli airstrikes targeted the Ouzai neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time, as well as the vicinity of the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital in Jnah.

In the south of the country, several early morning Israeli airstrikes targeted Khiam, Yohmor-Chkif, Kfar Kila, and the area between Saksakiyeh and Sarafand.

The localities of Ayta al-Shaab, Kouzah, Ramya, Naqoura, Alma al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, Dhayra, Boustan, as well as olive groves in the Marjayoun plain, were also bombarded.

During the night, Israeli warplanes struck villages in the cazas of Tyre, Bint Jbeil, and Nabatiyeh, including Ain Baal, Maaraka, Janata, Ain al-Mizrab, Safad al-Battikh, Hanine, Aita al-Shaab, Al-Hoch, Siddiqin, Arnoun, and orchards near Borj-al-Shemali.

In Tyre, where a branch of Qard al-Hassan — the illegal financial organization of Hezbollah — was targeted in an overnight raid, and the border road was cut off. Civil defense teams and rescuers, in cooperation with the natural disaster management unit of the Tyre municipal union, worked to clear debris and rubble.

In the Beqaa Valley, around 1:30 AM, two additional strikes targeted Jdeidet Yabous inside Syrian territory, a village located near the Masnaa border crossing.

On another note, Israeli media cited a Likud member of the Knesset who stated, “If colonization in Lebanon is what needs to be done to bring the residents of northern Israel back home, then we will do it.”

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