Lebanon reports deadly raid as Israel strikes Hizbollah depot in Syria
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon said Israel struck locations across the country on Tuesday, killing one person, as the Israeli military said it struck a Hizbollah weapons depot in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border.
The strikes came more than a month into the Hizbollah-Israel war which has left at least 1,964 dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 20 others were wounded following an Israeli strike on the coastal town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut.
A security source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the raid targeted an apartment used by Hizbollah in Jiyeh.
The strike destroyed the top floor of a four-storey complex, said an AFP correspondent.
Israeli raids also hit southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, according to the official National News Agency (NNA), as operations were underway to retrieve corpses from flashpoint areas.
The Lebanese Red Cross and the army retrieved seven corpses from a village in the southern region of Tyre following heavy raids in the area in recent weeks, according to NNA, which said the bodies appeared decomposed.
In a separate mission, the Lebanese Red Cross was also working on Tuesday to retrieve more than a dozen corpses that had been trapped in the flashpoint border town of Khiam for more than one week, NNA said.
Rescuers first entered on Sunday, having previously been unable to reach the area, where Hizbollah has said it is battling Israeli ground forces, according to NNA.
Hizbollah, meanwhile, claimed rocket and drone strikes at northern Israel, as well as on Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon.
Syria strike
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it "conducted an intelligence-based strike on weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah's munitions unit in the area of Al Qusayr" in Syria, near the border with Lebanon.
"Hizbollah's munitions unit is responsible for the storage of weapons in Lebanon and has recently expanded its activities into Syria in the area of Al Qusayr," it added.
Syria's official SANA news agency said: "An Israeli aggression targeted the industrial zone in Al Qusayr.
"The Israeli aggression also targeted some residential buildings surrounding the industrial zone," it added.
It did not report any casualties.
Areas along the Syria-Lebanon border have come under mounting attack as Israel has sought to prevent Hizbollah from replenishing its arsenal after the conflict escalated in September.
The main border crossing, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side, was put out of service by an Israeli strike last month.
On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al Qusayr.
The Britain-based war monitor said the dead were mostly civilians but also included three Syrian fighters for Hizbollah.