Israel-Hezbollah conflict: 23 Syrian refugees killed in Lebanon

Twenty-three Syrian refugees were killed in east Lebanon after the Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah targets in the area.

An “Israeli enemy strike on the village of Yunin” killed “20 people, including 19 Syrian nationals”, the health ministry said in a statement, raising an earlier toll of nine dead.

Lebanon’s state-run news agency Thursday quoted the village’s mayor Ali Kassas as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled out from under the rubble, adding that four other Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the same airstrike late Wednesday in the village of Younine.

Israel on Thursday categorically rejected a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, spearheaded by its key ally, the United States. Instead, Israel reaffirmed its commitment to persist in its military campaign against Hezbollah militants until achieving victory.

The Israeli military has intensified its aerial bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, backed by Iran, resulting in hundreds of casualties this week. Meanwhile, the militant group has retaliated with intense rocket fire.

“There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X.

Moments earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying he had “not even responded” to the truce proposal, and that he had ordered the military “to continue the fighting with full force”.

The United States, France and other allies issued a joint statement calling for a 21-day halt in the fighting, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The situation in Lebanon has become “intolerable” and “is in nobody’s interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon,” the statement said.

On the ground, there was no let-up in the violence.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had struck “approximately 75 terror targets” in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the south, both Hezbollah bastions that have seen a huge exodus people fleeing their homes in recent days.

One strike on the town of Yunin near the ancient city of Baalbek killed at least 20 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, with the official National News Agency describing the bombing of the area as “the most violent” of recent days.

“It was indescribable, it was one of the worst nights we’ve lived through. You think there’s just a second between life and death,” said Fadia Rafic Yaghi, 70, who owns a shop in Baalbek.

The Israeli military also said around 45 rockets had been fired from Lebanon, adding that some had been intercepted while others had landed in unpopulated areas.

Hezbollah said that it had again targeted defence industry complexes near the city of Haifa in northern Israel, saying it was “defending Lebanon and its people”.

Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday – by far the deadliest day of violence in Lebanon not just in the latest escalation, but since the 1975-1990 civil war.

For many on both sides of the border, the violence has sparked bitter memories of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

According to the UN, Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon had by Wednesday forced 90,000 people to flee their homes in traditional Hezbollah strongholds to safer areas elsewhere in the tiny Mediterranean country.

On Thursday, two Syrian security sources told AFP more than 22,000 people had crossed the Lebanese border into Syria this week, most of them Syrians.

The Lebanese health minister said Israeli strikes killed more than 72 people Wednesday. That raised the death toll since Monday to more than 630, with more than 2,000 people wounded, and thousands in southern Lebanon seeking refuge.

The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Syrian pro-government media outlets say Israel’s air force has carried out airstrikes along the Lebanon-Syria border, wounding five people and destroying a bridge that links the countries.

Syria’s Sham FM radio station and Dama Post reported that the airstrike wounded five people and destroyed the bridge near the Matraba border crossing on the Lebanese side in the northeastern Hermel region.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli airstrikes in Hermel.

The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza for nearly a year are urging Israel to ensure than any possible cease-fire deal with Hezbollah includes provisions for the war in Gaza.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was kidnapped and was one of six Israelis killed in Hamas tunnels in August, said the families of the hostages are feeling forgotten as attention shifts to the northern front.

“We know that these things are connected to each other, the northern part and the southern part, they’re all part of the same large situation in which we are at from October 7th on. And we’re very worried that if we don’t make the right decisions now, we will miss this amazing opportunity to get the hostages out,” Dickmann said on Thursday.

He slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for missing multiple opportunities to free his cousin over the past 11 months and begged him to agree to a cease-fire with both Hezbollah and Hamas that would include provisions for the hostages.

Dickmann’s sister-in-law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released in the week-long cease-fire deal last November, along with nearly 100 other hostages.

Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people during their Oct. 7 attack in Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza since then.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cease-fire called on by the United States, France and other allies is only a proposal, and that Netanyahu, who is on a flight en route to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly, has not responded to it.

The U.S. and its allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is the acting prime minister during Netanyahu’s trip abroad, said there will be no cease-fire in the north, vowing to continue the fighting in the north “with full force until victory” and returning the tens of thousands of Israeli citizens evacuated from their homes.

Netanyahu’s office added that the Israeli military was continuing to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

An Israeli airstrike on a village in northeast Lebanon destroyed a building housing Syrian workers, killing 23 of them and wounding another eight people.

State-run National News Agency quoted the village’s mayor Ali Kassas as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled out from under the rubble, adding that four other Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the same airstrike late Wednesday in the village of Younine, just north of the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley that borders Syria.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it evacuated the bodies of nine people following the airstrike. Others were taken by Hezbollah’s paramedic arm as well as the Lebanese Civil Defense, NNA said.

A country of about 6 million people, Lebanon hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.

The Israeli military says it struck 75 sites overnight across southern and eastern Lebanon, part of a punishing air campaign in response to Hezbollah rocket fire.

The military said Thursday it was targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers. Around half a dozen Israelis have been wounded in the latest escalation.

The Israeli military said around 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Thursday, all of them either intercepted or falling in open areas. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza, hoping to pin down Israeli forces. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies of Iran.

The fighting has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israel has vowed to do whatever is necessary to allow its citizens to return, and has moved thousands of troops to the northern border in preparation for what could be a ground campaign into southern Lebanon.

The United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire in the conflict to “provide space for diplomacy” as fears grow that the violence could become an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which would further destabilize a region already shaken by the war in Gaza.

Britain says it’s sending $6.7 million worth of humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies, hygiene kits and fuel to Lebanon to support the civilian population there as fighting forces thousands to flee their homes.

The United Kingdom said in a statement that the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, will distribute the supplies, which will also help aid workers better deal with urgent health and nutrition needs.

The UK earlier announced that 700 troops, including Border Force and Foreign Office officials, would be deployed to a British military base in Cyprus to prepare for possible evacuations of British citizens from the region as fighting could potentially escalate.

An online portal and phone line have been reopened for British nationals in Lebanon to register their presence.

Cyprus is situated approximately 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of the Lebanese capital. The east Mediterranean island nation served as a waystation for the repatriation of approximately 60,000 foreign nationals who where evacuated from Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Britain’s Minister of State for Development, Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, said the U.K. will continue to support Lebanese people as it urges British nationals to leave the country.

British navy ships RFA Mounts Bay and the HMS Duncan were already in the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday, while the Royal Air Force has aircraft and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if needed.

The United States, France and other allies called Wednesday for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.

The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”

“We call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” the statement reads. “We call on all parties, including the Governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary cease-fire immediately.”

The signatories include the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

With inputs from agencies.