As Israel intensifies its airstrikes on Lebanon despite an April ceasefire, one attack close to Lebanon’s largest dam and hydroelectric plant has triggered concerns that Tel Aviv could begin targeting the country’s key infrastructure. An airstrike on 26 May hit near the dam on Qaraoun Lake in West Beqaa district, a region adjacent to southern Lebanon, which connects the south to deeper areas of the Beqaa Valley.
Towns and villages in West Beqaa, including Sohmor and Mashghara, have come under heavy attack in recent months. Israel’s evacuation map, which covers much of South Lebanon also includes parts of the district.
Authorities said the dam was not affected and continued to operate normally, but warned of devastating repercussions should it be put out of service.
Two days later, the Israeli military claimed that a number of Hezbollah members had earlier been spotted attempting to interfere with the dam’s operations and were subsequently targeted.
The Israeli military warned that any strike on the dam "could cause severe damage to Lebanon’s economy and to the Lebanese state itself," adding that the Lebanese authorities bear "responsibility for protecting national infrastructure and preventing Hezbollah from exploiting it for terrorist purposes".
Hezbollah, which is battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon , warned Thursday evening that Israel’s statement was a pretext for future attacks on the dam.
The "fabricated allegations and pretexts" could be laying the groundwork for future attacks targeting the Qaraoun Dam or its surroundings, as well as other vital civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, Hezbollah said.
It added that it was placing these threats "before the international community and human rights and humanitarian organisations," which it said were now obligated to "break their silence regarding Israel’s repeated attacks on Lebanon and its infrastructure". Closed-off military zone Following the dangerous incident, Lebanon’s Litani River Authority (LRA) announced a series of measures to protect the dam and launched efforts on both domestic and international levels to secure protection for the facility.
The LRA oversees the Litani, Lebanon’s longest river, which includes Qaraoun Lake.
The authority warned that "any direct or indirect targeting of the dam or its facilities could lead to catastrophic risks for residents, infrastructure and vital facilities in areas downstream," stressing that the dam is a strategic civilian installation linked to Lebanon’s water security, energy supply and irrigation systems.
Speaking to The New Arab , the authority’s general manager, Sami Alawieh, said the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire monitoring committee had informed them that the dam would be "spared".
That US-led committee, known as the 'mechanism,' was established in 2024 in order to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah but failed to halt Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal.
"The dam is now a closed-off military area, something I have been calling for since the 2020 Beirut Port explosion," Alawieh told TNA .
He said the decision had been taken after contacts with the president, prime minister, energy minister, Beqaa governor and other relevant authorities, adding that the road leading to the dam has been completely closed off and gatherings and other activities in the dam’s vicinity have been banned.
"All civilian infrastructure should be protected and spared from military operations under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law," he added.
Alawieh did not comment when asked about the Israeli claims that Hezbollah members were at the dam, but said the dam is fully under the LRA’s control.
He said the road, which was damaged in the strike, sits parallel to the dam and is an essential part of the facility.
"Some entrances to the dam were lightly damaged, but there was no dangerous impact to the dam itself or water leakage" he told TNA . "The attack was extremely dangerous. Had it struck the dam directly, it could have caused serious repercussions".
A source at Lebanon’s Energy and Water Ministry also told TNA that Minister Joe Saddi had contacted the 'mechanism' and the Lebanese army to ensure that the dam and its facilities would be spared.
The source confirmed that the road had been struck, but said it forms part of the dam’s premises and was not designed for public traffic, although motorists regularly used it as a shortcut around the lake. Diplomatic push The LRA has rushed to document the damage and risks resulting from the strikes in an official legal report, calling for urgent diplomatic intervention to shield the dam from any future attacks under international humanitarian law.
Alawieh also sent a letter to Abdulaziz Al Mulla, executive director at the World Bank Group, warning that strikes near the Qaraoun Dam pose serious risks to a strategic civilian facility tied to Lebanon’s water security, energy supply, irrigation and public safety.
Attached to the letter was a USAID assessment outlining potential flood scenarios and catastrophic risks in the event of structural failure or a direct strike on the dam, including threats to residents, infrastructure and vital facilities downstream.
Alawieh further warned that several World Bank-funded projects – including the Awali water transfer project to Beirut and the rehabilitation of Litani power plants – depend on the dam’s continued operation.
According to the Lebanese NGO The Legal Agenda, the judicial documentation submitted by the LRA helps formally establish the damage resulting from Israeli attacks and gives the evidence legal weight before judicial and official bodies in Lebanon, abroad, and at UN institutions.
The NGO added that the documentation is particularly important amid the possibility of a future mission from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law in Lebanon. Why is the Qaraoun Dam so important? The Qaraoun Dam is considered one of Lebanon’s most important water projects, playing a central role in water resource management, hydroelectric power generation and agricultural irrigation, while also supplying drinking water to surrounding villages.
For nearly six decades, the dam has been crucial in providing water and electricity and irrigating vast agricultural areas across the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Completed in the mid-1960s, the Qaraoun Dam is the largest of its kind in Lebanon, with a storage capacity of around 220 million cubic metres of water. The embankment dam, which features a concrete face, stands 62 metres high and stretches 1,100 metres in length, making it one of the Arab region’s most prominent water facilities.
The dam is particularly important for hydroelectric power generation, supplying four power plants with a combined capacity of 195 megawatts through a network of tunnels and pipelines extending roughly 31 kilometres.
It also supports major agricultural irrigation projects covering thousands of hectares of farmland, helping strengthen food security and support the local economy.
The dam is additionally linked to the Canal 800 project – a strategic development initiative still under construction that is expected to provide irrigation for around 13,000 hectares of land and supply drinking water to more than 100 towns and villages.