UPDATE 2 – Syrian teenager killed in Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon

UPDTES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES HEADLINE

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) – A Syrian teenager was killed in an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon on Thursday evening despite a ceasefire deal in place since November 2024, Lebanese state media reported.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a 17-year-old boy was killed in the strike that targeted the Masharee Beit Mshik area near Kfar Dan, west of Baalbek.

The fatality came as Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes targeting the western Baalbek area in eastern Lebanon, with fighter jets flying at low altitude over the region.

The Israeli army said in a statement that the strikes targeted infrastructure belonging to the Lebanese group Hezbollah’s “Radwan Force” in the Baalbek area.

In southern Lebanon, an Israeli drone carried out a strike with a guided missile on the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

NNA said the missile hit a wooded area known as Ali al-Taher on the northeastern edge of the town in the Nabatieh governorate. Ambulances were dispatched to the site.

Separately in southern Lebanon, NNA reported that the Lebanese army “was completing defensive measures” in the Sarda area of the Marjayoun district, installing metal fencing alongside an earthen berm it had raised along a route frequently used for Israeli incursions from the Al-Hamamis hill.

On Wednesday, the army fortified two positions in Sarda by building additional earth mounds.

Lebanese forces were fired upon from the Israeli side on Tuesday in what Israel described as “warning shots” aimed at preventing the establishment of a new military post near the border.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said the vicinity of a newly established observation point in Sarda-Marjayoun came under Israeli gunfire.

The latest attacks came amid repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024, killing and wounding hundreds of Lebanese. Israel continues to occupy five Lebanese hilltops seized during the latest war, in addition to other Lebanese areas it has held for decades.

* Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul.