Israeli strikes in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley kill 12 in deadliest attack since ceasefire
Event date: 2025-07-15
Israeli air strikes in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed at least 12 people on July 15, 2025, in what the BBC described as the deadliest attack since a ceasefire ended a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah. The casualties were reported by Baalbek-Hermel Governor Bachir Khodr, while the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah military compounds, including sites linked to the group's elite Radwan Force.
According to Khodr's account, seven Syrians, including a family of five, and three Lebanese were killed in the Wadi Faara area. Two other deaths were reported in Shmustar. That breakdown underscored how the strikes affected civilian areas as well as the military targets cited by Israel. Hezbollah had not commented directly on the attacks at the time of the report, although its Al-Manar television channel said the strikes violated both Lebanon's sovereignty and the ceasefire arrangement.
The Israeli military said the operation targeted several Hezbollah compounds and training camps belonging to the Radwan Force, as well as warehouses used to store combat equipment. Israel has argued that Hezbollah's weapons storage and military activity in the Bekaa Valley breach the understandings underpinning the ceasefire and create a future threat to Israel. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were meant to send what he called a clear message to both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.
The violence matters because the ceasefire brokered in November by U.S. mediators was meant to halt a year of fighting that included two months of full-scale war and left Hezbollah badly weakened. Under that arrangement, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, leaving only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers authorized to operate with arms in the border zone. Israel, for its part, was supposed to fully withdraw its forces from Lebanon, though the BBC said it has maintained a presence at five sites in the south that it considers strategically important.
The strike also revived a wider dispute over how fully the ceasefire has been implemented. Israel says Hezbollah has been trying to rebuild parts of its military capability, particularly through the Radwan Force, whose commanders Israel says were killed during its 2024 campaign. Lebanon and Hezbollah have argued that repeated Israeli strikes amount to continuing violations that risk collapsing the truce altogether.
For now, the immediate facts are the casualty toll and Israel's stated target set. The attack showed how quickly the ceasefire framework can give way to renewed lethal force, especially when Israel says Hezbollah is rebuilding and Lebanese officials say civilians are paying the price. With 12 reported dead and the political arguments over compliance unresolved, the Bekaa Valley strikes sharpened doubts about how durable the truce really was.
