Air strike on house kills five in southern Lebanon
At least five people were killed on Saturday evening – four from the one family – while nine were injured when an Israeli strike hit a house in Kherbet Selem, southern Lebanon.
Among those killed were a couple and their two sons, displaced from their home in Blida by the border clashes between Israel and Iran-backed militia Hezbollah, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.
Kherbet Selem is about 12km from the border and was considered a safer location, with the fighting mainly confined to the border regions.
The air strike destroyed the house and caused severe damage to dozens of surrounding buildings.
The Israeli army said it had struck several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon overnight, including a location in Kherbet Selem where “Hezbollah operatives” had been observed. It added that “five members of a family, including three Hezbollah members, were killed in the Kherbet Selem strike”.
Hezbollah later said that the father and sons had been members of its reserve forces. The militia claimed nine attacks against northern Israel on the same day.
Ambulance and relief teams worked for hours to retrieve the family’s bodies and take them to the government hospital in Tibnine.
The border clashes since October have killed at least 312 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including 56 civilians, AFP said.
On the Israeli side of the border, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed.
Last Tuesday, a Lebanese couple and their son were killed when an Israeli strike hit a house in the border village of Hula.
Human Rights Watch said the recent rise in civilian casualties in southern Lebanon was “extremely worrying”.
US envoy Amos Hochstein last week travelled to Lebanon and Israel seeking a negotiated resolution to the clashes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said its fighters will not stand down until a ceasefire is secured in the Israel-Gaza war.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah back from the border with Lebanon, by diplomacy or by force.