Israeli strike kills civilians in south Lebanon
BEIRUT: A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village on Sunday killed a couple and their child, the latest deadly incident in the border region.
Fighting intensified in the past few weeks, with Israel striking deeper into Lebanese territory, while Hizbollah has stepped up its missile and drone attacks on military positions in northern Israel.
“The dad, the mother and their little son were martyred,” according to the Mays Al Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike killed “three civilians” and wounded several others.
Hezbollah had on Saturday evening said it fired on military positions in northern Israel.
The Lebanese movement has repeatedly declared that only a ceasefire in Gaza will put an end to its attacks on Israel.
The latest violence came as a Hamas delegation met with mediators in Egypt for talks on a possible truce deal in the Gaza war.
Both the United States and France have made diplomatic efforts to calm tensions on the Lebanese-israeli border.
In Lebanon, at least 389 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
Meanwhile, the European Union announced an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros – about $1.06 billion – much of which will go to boost border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.
The deal follows other EU aid packages for countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritania to fortify their borders.
It comes against a backdrop of increasing hostility toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a major surge in irregular migration of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Cyprus.
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a Beirut visit with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that the aid distribution will start this year and last till 2027.
The bulk of the aid – 736 million euros – would go to support Syrian refugees “and other vulnerable groups” in Lebanon, while 200 million euros are meant to bolster Lebanese security services in enforcing border and migration control, according to figures provided by the Cypriot government.