Rescuers were seen working at a site damaged by Israeli strikes in Yohmor, located in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, on October 29, 2024. — Reuters

Overnight Israeli strikes in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley resulted in the deaths of over 60 people across a dozen towns, according to the district governor, marking the deadliest day in the area in more than a year of conflict. Rescue workers continued to extract bodies from the rubble on Tuesday morning. Israel has intensified its air strikes across Lebanon in the past month, claiming it is targeting the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Lebanese officials, human rights organizations, and residents of the affected towns argue that the strikes are indiscriminate. No evacuation orders were issued for any of the towns hit overnight. District governor Bachir Khodor reported that 67 people had been killed and more than 120 wounded, with the death toll expected to rise. 'That's only the people who've been removed from under the rubble and we still don't have the final toll. This is the most violent day for Baalbek in the last year,' Khodor told Reuters. The casualties included nine people killed in Ram, according to its mayor Nazih Noun, including a woman and her four children. 'It's quiet now, but we don't know how we can carry on with the funerals given the security situation,' Noun told Reuters. The Bekaa Valley is home to large swathes of Hezbollah strongholds. Israel has not yet commented on the attacks. Since Israel's military and Hezbollah began exchanging fire over a year ago, alongside the war in Gaza, more than 2,700 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments of Lebanon. At least two-thirds of these deaths occurred in the last five weeks, as Israel intensified its bombing campaign. The expanded strikes have targeted the port city of Tyre. On Monday, Israel issued a new evacuation order for parts of the city and carried out strikes that damaged the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, both located within the evacuation zone. The strikes and subsequent detonation of homes have left towns along Lebanon's border with Israel in ruins, according to satellite imagery.

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