UPDATES DEATH TOLL, REVISES DECK
By Mohammed Ragawi
ISTANBUL (AA) - Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 people in Lebanon since early Thursday, targeting two vehicles and residential buildings in attacks across the country’s south and north, Lebanese authorities and media said.
The Health Ministry said two people were killed and two others injured in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the Zahle area in eastern Lebanon.
Three more people were killed when an Israeli drone struck a car on the Tyre-Naqoura road near the town of Qlailah in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Another Israeli airstrike hit a house at dawn in the southern town of Kfour in the Nabatieh district, killing the town’s mayor, and his wife, according to the agency.
Rescue teams were working to recover their bodies from beneath the rubble, the agency added.
NNA said another Israeli strike killed a Hamas member and his wife in the Beddawi refugee camp in the northern city of Tripoli. One of their daughters was injured and taken to a hospital.
Warplanes also carried out heavy airstrikes on the town of Qabrikha in the Marjayoun district in southern Lebanon, killing a man, wife and their son, according to the agency.
An Israeli airstrike also hit a house in the town of Shaabiyeh in Tyre, but no details are yet available about casualties.
The situation escalated in Lebanon on Monday after Hezbollah targeted a military site in northern Israel with rockets and drones in response to ongoing Israeli airstrikes and the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack.
The Israeli army launched a series of airstrikes in response, killing at least 72 people and injuring nearly 450 others. The military also launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
Israel has repeatedly violated a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, signed in November 2024, carrying out near-daily strikes that have left hundreds dead and wounded.
Israel began its offensive against Lebanon in October 2023 and escalated it into a full-scale war in September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people and wounding about 17,000.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio and Lina Altawell