As the Israeli military intensified a days-long barrage of strikes south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, at least 12 emergency rescue workers were killed on Thursday in a strike on a civil defense center in the northeastern city of Baalbek, the regional governor said.
Rescue operations were underway, and the city’s civil defense chief, Bilal Raad, was among those missing, said the governor, Bachir Khodr.
“We know that there were more than 20 people inside,” Mr. 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 immediately respond to a request for comment about the strikes in Baalbek. But the Israel Defense Forces have 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 Gaza.
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, a militia backed by Iran. The attacks killed at least 15 people and wounded 16 others, including women and children, according to Syrian state media.
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