Beirut: Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the country's east and south killed at least eight people on Friday, with Israel's army saying it targeted militant group Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas.
A Hezbollah source told AFP that a military leader from the Iran-backed group was among the dead in the strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting the group but occasionally also Hamas militants.
Israeli strikes in the Bekaa "led to an initial toll of six dead and more than 25 wounded, distributed across the region's hospitals," the state-run National News Agency said.
The agency had earlier reported "heavy strikes" in several locations in the region, including a raid on a building in Riyak.
Israel's army said it hit "Hezbollah command centers" in the Baalbek area.
The raids came hours after an Israeli strike on the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp killed two people, according to the health ministry, with Israel's army saying it had targeted Hamas.
The NNA said "an Israeli drone" targeted a neighborhood of the Ain al-Helweh camp, which is located on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.
An AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from a building in the densely populated camp as ambulances headed to the scene.
Hamas
The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces "struck a Hamas command center from which terrorists operated."
The Israeli military "is operating against the entrenchment" of the Palestinian militant group in Lebanon and will "continue to act decisively against Hamas terrorists wherever they operate," it added.
Hamas in a statement condemned the attack, which it said led to "civilian" casualties.
It rejected Israel's allegations as "flimsy pretexts," saying the targeted building "belongs to the joint security force charged with maintaining security and stability in the camp."
A raid on Ain al-Helweh last November that Israel said targeted a Hamas training compound killed 13 people.
The UN rights office had said 11 children were killed in that strike, while Hamas denied it had military installations in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
In October 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas at the outset of the Gaza war, triggering hostilities that culminated in two months of all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
Lebanon's government last year committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army said last month that it had completed the first phase of the plan, covering the area near the Israeli border.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient.
