​ Dozens killed as Israeli special forces raid Lebanese village in search of 40-year-old remains. 16 hours ago. Alice CuddySenior international reporter, Nabi Chit. Reuters. Dozens more people have been killed in Lebanon in major Israeli air and ground operations, as the war with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah continues to escalate.. Overnight, one Israeli operation in a town in the eastern Bekaa Valley – a focal point of the rising hostilities – saw at least 41 people killed and 40 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.. Three Lebanese soldiers were among the dead, and locals listed the names of civilians, including children, they said had been killed.. The focus of the operation in Nabi Chit was recovering the remains of an Israeli military airman who went missing in Lebanon 40 years ago.. On Saturday, there was a hole in the ground in the corner of the town cemetery where a grave had been dug up.. “They thought he was there but there was nothing,” one local man said, gesturing at the empty grave.. Follow live updates on the conflict in the Middle East. ‘We couldn’t sleep because of fear’: Residents flee as Israel pounds south Beirut. Israeli troops push into Lebanon for yet another war with Iran’s proxy Hezbollah. Elsewhere in the town, bullet holes were scattered across a destroyed car and its seats were stained red with blood.. Around the area, buildings had been reduced to piles of rubble and a huge crater had been blown into the ground, damaging the surrounding houses.. Signs of civilian life, including a children’s colouring book, paintings and cooking utensils, were among the debris.. Hezbollah – which is the main force in the area – allowed journalists into the town to see the scale of the destruction.. The Shia militia and political group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and others.. The Lebanese military said it had observed four Israeli aircraft appear by Lebanon’s border with Syria late on Friday night, with two of them landing and deploying special forces soldiers onto the ground.. A “large-scale aerial bombardment” began at the same time, it said.. The Lebanese military, which has sought to distance itself from the war between Hezbollah and Israel, said its units then carried out “immediate alert and defence measures”, using flare bombs to detect the landing spot.. In Nabi Chit, clashes then broke out on the streets between the Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, and civilians defending their homes.. Reuters. “At midnight, we felt a strange movement on one side of the village. It turned out to be an Israeli commando unit deployed for some mission,” a local official said at the site of one major explosion.. “The resistance then surrounded them and heavy clashes ensued. Then the air force increased their air strikes to allow the extraction of their unit which caused tremendous damage”.. Hezbollah and local residents said Israel had conducted some 40 airstrikes in the area to give cover to the sp