By Middle East Correspondent
LONDON, (The Muslim News): At least eight people were killed and more than 25 others wounded in Israeli air strikes on eastern Lebanon on Friday evening, Lebanese media reported, as tensions continued to simmer along the border.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said six people were confirmed dead and over 25 injured in strikes across the Bekaa region, with casualties transferred to hospitals across the area.
According to the NNA, Israeli warplanes launched a wave of “intense” raids on the eastern and western mountain ranges of the Bekaa Valley, with explosions reverberating across the region. Three strikes hit the Shaara area at the foothills of the eastern Lebanon mountain range, while aircraft were reported to be flying over Baalbek.
One strike levelled a building near the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Foundation on the Riyaq–Baalbek highway, the agency said. Two further air raids targeted the plains of Qasr Naba and Tamnine al-Tahta, west of Baalbek.
Earlier on Friday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said at least two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Ein el-Hilweh, the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Sidon. The NNA reported that an “Israeli drone” had targeted the Hittin neighbourhood inside the camp.
The Israeli military said its latest strikes in Lebanon were aimed at Hezbollah command centres.
The UN rights office said in November it had verified at least 108 civilian casualties from Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, including at least 21 women and 16 children.
Lebanon lodged a complaint with the United Nations last month over what it described as repeated Israeli violations, urging the UN Security Council to press Israel to halt its attacks and fully withdraw from Lebanese territory.
The latest raids come amid ongoing breaches of the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024, under which Israel was to withdraw from areas seized during the most recent war. Israeli forces continue to occupy five hilltops captured during the conflict, in addition to other territory held for decades.
Israeli settlers torch Bedouin homes in West Bank
Separately in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces on Friday evening raided the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, and fired tear gas canisters at a football pitch during a sporting event, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. No injuries were reported.
WAFA also reported that illegal Israeli settlers torched property in a Bedouin community between Rammun and Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah. A community member said eight mobile homes were set alight, displacing three families.
He said Jewish settler attacks had intensified over the past month, noting that two days earlier settlers allegedly stole dozens of sheep, as well as cash and jewellery, and injured five residents.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is a frequent occurrence in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities. Around one million Israeli settlers live in colonies across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, settlements widely regarded as illegal under international law.
In Gaza, a Palestinian child was shot and wounded by Israeli forces in Jabalia al-Balad, north of the territory, WAFA reported. The child was struck by live ammunition in the Halawa camp area.
Medical teams later recovered the body of a man killed by Israeli gunfire days earlier near Salah al-Din Street, north of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Israeli warplanes also struck the al-Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City, while Israeli forces carried out demolitions east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to local reports.
[Photo: Palestinian woman holds pictures of her sons as she spends Ramadan away from her children and under difficult conditions in Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 20, 2026. The woman lost one of her three children in Israeli attacks, another is being held in custody by Israeli authorities, while the fate of her third child remains unknown after he went north and have not been heard from since. Photojournalist: Abdallah F.s. Alattar/AA]
