Woman and child killed by air strike in Lebanon
A woman and a six-year-old girl have been killed in an Israeli strike in the Lebanese village of Majdal Zoun, 6km from the country’s southern border.
The girl, Amal Al Dorr, had left her house to “pick some vegetables to prepare breakfast”, Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported after an interview with her father, Hussein.
The girl had asked to go to her family home to “visit and greet her grandfather”, Hussein said.
Her two siblings were at school, and could not find their sister when they returned home on Wednesday.
Amal’s uncle, Hassan Al Dorr, posted a photo of his niece on social media. “Tomorrow, there is no Amal. Tomorrow, there is no school. Tomorrow, there is no ‘good morning, uncle’. Tomorrow, there is no ‘take a picture of me and send it to Baba’. Tomorrow, there is no innocent smile or high five,” he wrote.
Al Akhbar said Amal’s brother Mahmoud had also been killed by Israeli fire, but did not say when this had happened.
The Israeli army said it had hit “a Hezbollah operational command centre in the area of Mansouri”, a village a few kilometres from Majdal Zoun.
Lebanon’s National News Agency identified the woman killed in the Israeli strike as Khadija Salman. Her daughter “sustained critical injuries”, the agency said.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had responded to “Israeli attacks on civilian villages and homes, especially … in Majdal Zoun”, by firing rockets at Matzuva, a kibbutz across the border in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said it was “reviewing” claims that civilians had been killed as a result of its air strike.
Two Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli drone attack on Kfar Remen in the Nabatieh province of Lebanon, a spokesman for the militia told The National on Thursday.
Three people were injured in the strike, and have been taken to hospitals in the region.
Hezbollah and allied militant groups have been exchanging cross-border fire with Israel on an almost daily basis since the war in Gaza began in October.
Israeli strikes have killed about 50 civilians in Lebanon, along with almost 200 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have killed a dozen Israeli soldiers and five civilians.