Lebanon state media says Israel strikes house in Baalbek city

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.

"Enemy aircraft launched a strike on a house in the Al-Laqees neighbourhood" of the city, the state-run National News Agency said.

Earlier, NNA had reported a rare Israeli strike north of Beirut, on the Shiite-majority village of Almat, which is located in a mostly Christian region.

Overnight and Sunday morning, Israel conducted a series of air strikes on southern and eastern villages and locations, NNA said.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed 20 people in eastern Lebanon and 13 in the south, according to health ministry figures.

Israel intensified its air campaign mainly targeting Hizbollah bastions in Lebanon's east and south and in southern Beirut on September 23 and a week later sent in ground troops.

The escalation came after nearly a year of low-intensity, cross-border attacks by Hizbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

More than 3,130 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border exchanges began, according to Lebanon's health ministry, most of them since September 23.