Lebanon says Israeli airstrike kills at least 12 rescue workers

WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Smoke rises from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday. At least 12 people were reported to be killed. HUSSEIN MALLA – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Liam Stack, Aaron Boxerman and Euan Ward

The New York Times

TEL AVIV, Israel >> As the Israeli military intensified a dayslong barrage of strikes south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, at least 12 emergency rescue workers were killed Thursday in the northeastern city of Baalbek, the regional governor said.

The city’s civil defense chief, Bilal Raad, was among those found dead amid the rubble, said the governor, Bachir Khodr, who added that rescue operations were underway for any survivors.

“We know that there were more than 20 people inside,” Khodr said of the center. “We haven’t found anyone alive so far.”

Lebanon’s civil defense agency, which performs emergency and medical services, is an arm of the Lebanese state and is not controlled by or affiliated with Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about the strikes in Baalbek. But the Israeli military has intensified strikes on Hezbollah’s infrastructure in Lebanon and targeted its leaders for assassination since the group began firing on Israel in solidarity with Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The strikes in Lebanon occurred the same day that Israeli fighter jets bombed sites in the Syrian capital, Damascus, that the military said were affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The attacks killed at least 15 people and wounded 16 others, including women and children, according to Syrian state media.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the attack had “inflicted significant damage” to a command center belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The military blamed Syria for allowing the militia to operate from its territory.

“We are conducting deep strikes and striking frequently in Syria and along the Syria-Lebanon border to prevent weapons transfers to Hezbollah,” Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, said Tuesday.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said Israel struck the al-Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus Thursday afternoon, damaging several buildings.

Iranian news media reported that an Israeli missile hit a building in Damascus close to where a prominent Iranian official, Ali Larijani, was meeting with the director of Syria’s National Security Committee. Larijani was not injured, according to Khabar Online, an Iranian news agency.

Larijani, a former speaker of parliament who is a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been on a “special mission” to Syria on behalf of Khamenei, Iranian news media reported. No further details were released.