Israel Says it Targeted Hezbollah Sites in Lebanon, 2 Dead

People stand amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israel's ground and air offensive after returning to the southern Lebanese village of Aita al Shaab as on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
People stand amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israel's ground and air offensive after returning to the southern Lebanese village of Aita al Shaab as on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
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Israel Says it Targeted Hezbollah Sites in Lebanon, 2 Dead

People stand amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israel's ground and air offensive after returning to the southern Lebanese village of Aita al Shaab as on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
People stand amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israel's ground and air offensive after returning to the southern Lebanese village of Aita al Shaab as on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)

The Israeli military said on Friday it struck several Hezbollah targets overnight in the Bekaa Valley and along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The army said the targets include a facility used for underground weapons development and another associated with the smuggling of arms into Lebanon.

Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in an Israeli strike on an unofficial border crossing in eastern Lebanon early Friday morning, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s state news agency said Israel launched four strikes on the Janta border crossing in the eastern province of Baalbeck, while two other strikes targeted two illegal Syria-Lebanon border crossings in northern Lebanon late Thursday and early Friday.

On Thursday, Israel said it intercepted a surveillance drone launched by Hezbollah calling it "a breach of the ceasefire agreement" between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire in late November, ending a deadly conflict that began with the Gaza war in 2023. The US confirmed on Sunday that the agreement, which includes a 60-day period for Israeli troop withdrawal, will remain in effect until Feb. 18, extending the original Jan. 26 deadline.

Israel has carried out multiple strikes on Lebanese territory since the ceasefire extension, killing and injuring more than 100 people.

In a statement, Hezbollah legislator Ibrahim Moussawi called Friday's strikes a very dangerous violation and a blatant and explicit aggression,” adding that “the Lebanese state, represented by the presidency, the government and the army, is required to take immediate action.”



US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

US aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency UNICEF to suspend or scale back many programs in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country's east, an official said on Friday.

"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut.