Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley, on October 30, 2024
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israeli airstrikes pounded the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Wednesday (October 30, 2024), killing at least 19 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state-run news agency.

Hours earlier, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire city — including its ancient Roman temple complex inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Israel said it was targeting sites connected to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday (October 28, 2024), without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.