Smoke rises as individuals gather the stays of their belongings from a constructing destroyed in an Israeli strike. File
| Picture Credit score: AP
No less than 10 individuals had been killed and 24 wounded — together with three youngsters — in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s jap Bekaa Valley Friday (February 20, 2026), the Lebanese Well being Ministry reported. One other two individuals had been killed by an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp earlier within the day.
Israel stated it had hit “command facilities” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Bekaa Valley. There was no rapid assertion from Hezbollah.
Native tv footage from the scene of one of many strikes within the Bekaa confirmed the focused website gave the impression to be an residence constructing, and emergency crews had been preventing a fireplace and looking out within the rubble for survivors.
Earlier Friday (February 20, 2026), one other Israeli strike had hit a Palestinian refugee camp within the port metropolis of Sidon, killing two individuals.
The Israeli army stated it hit a “Hamas command heart” within the Ein el-Hilweh camp. Hamas acknowledged that two of its members had been killed within the strike however known as the declare {that a} command heart was struck a “flimsy pretext.” It stated the focused constructing belonged to a joint safety pressure made up of assorted Palestinian factions that’s tasked with sustaining safety within the camp.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel triggered warfare in Gaza, Hezbollah started firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in help of Hamas and the Palestinians.
Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level battle escalated into full-scale warfare in September 2024, later reined in however not absolutely stopped by a U.S.-brokered ceasefire two months later.
Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of making an attempt to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says goal Hezbollah militants and services. Hezbollah has claimed one strike towards Israel for the reason that ceasefire.
The demise toll from Friday’s (February 20, 2026) strikes was unusually excessive and comes at a second of intensified tensions within the area as the USA has threatened to strike Iran — a backer of each Hezbollah and Hamas — if negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program fail to supply a deal.
Throughout final 12 months’s Israel-Iran warfare, Hezbollah remained on the sidelines, however many in Lebanon worry that the nation will probably be pulled in ought to one other warfare get away.
Printed – February 21, 2026 06:49 am IST