Israel launches deadly strike on south Lebanon as war grinds on

Hashem Osseiran Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Sidon on Sunday as more bombs fell in the country's east after Israel warned it would again hit Hizbollah targets there.

In Israel, the military said it intercepted several projectiles fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory, while some fell in unpopulated areas.

Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah have been at war since September 23, when Israel escalated air raids over the border after a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire. One week later it sent ground troops into southern Lebanon on "targeted raids".

Hizbollah said it was acting in support of Palestinian Hamas, whose unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 last year triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon has now climbed to 2,986 and the number of injured to 13,402 since October 2023, including 18 dead and 83 injured in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said on Sunday.

A woman snaps pictures of the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Baalbeck, Lebanon, on Sunday. AFP

"The Israeli enemy's raid on Haret Saida resulted in an initial death toll of three people killed and nine others injured," Lebanon's health ministry said, referring to a densely populated area near Sidon.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported another Israeli strike south of Sidon, on the town of Ghaziyeh. That strike hit a residential building, according to an AFP correspondent, who said a child was rescued from the rubble.

NNA said other Israeli strikes hit near a hospital in Tebnin, a town in the south Lebanon district of Bint Jbeil. The mayor of Tebnin told AFP the hospital was significantly damaged.

Neither the Haret Saida strike nor those in Lebanon's south were preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.

Heavy air raids

Israel's military did issue a warning for Lebanon's Baalbek area, which includes east Lebanon's main city and UNESCO-designated Roman ruins, saying it would be targeting Hezbollah-linked facilities.

People check the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Baalbeck, Lebanon, on Sunday. AFP

An AFP correspondent later reported at least three strikes in the Baalbek area, where Hizbollah holds sway and which has seen heavy air raids in the past few days.

The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

Among the latest casualties was a Bangladeshi killed Saturday in a strike on his way to work in Beirut, Bangladesh's ambassador to Lebanon said in a statement.

Israel's military says 38 soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon campaign since it began ground operations.

Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria have also been drawn into fighting, and Iran and Israel have themselves attacked each other, heightening fears of even wider conflict.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday warned Israel and the United States they "will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response" for attacks on Iran and its allies.

Debris are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Baalbeck, Lebanon, on Sunday. AFP

Israel has warned Iran against responding to its October 26 attack.

On Sunday demonstrators burned Israeli and US flags outside the former American embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis that has shaped relations between Washington and Tehran ever since.

American B-52 bombers have arrived in the Middle East, the US military said on Saturday, as part of reinforcements being sent to the region in a warning to Iran.

In Gaza the Israeli military again reported "dozens" of fighters killed in the Jabalia area of north Gaza where, since October 6, Israeli forces have carried out a major air and ground assault to stop Hamas from regrouping.

Agencies