NABATIYA, Lebanon (AP) – The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported Thursday, the highest number of deaths a day earlier. This was the worst interaction I've ever had.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Wednesday's airstrike, hours after an Israeli soldier was killed by a Lebanese projectile. The airstrikes hit the city and village of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.
Further Israeli airstrikes were reported in southern Lebanon on Thursday, with Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemning the escalation.
“While we advocate calm and call on all sides to de-escalate, we find that our enemy Israel is escalating its aggression,” his office said in a statement.
The Israeli military said Thursday's attacks targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and firing bases. According to NNA, Lebanese state media reported that the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes near the border towns of Rabune, Wadi Surki, Majdal Serm and Houra.
The United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border has expressed concern over recent “gunfights” and called on all parties involved to cease fighting to prevent further escalation. .
“Attacks against civilian targets violate international law and amount to war crimes,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. “The devastation, loss of life and injuries witnessed are deeply disturbing.”
The attack caused part of a building to collapse in Nabatié, killing seven members of a family, including children, the state news agency said. A boy who was initially reported missing was found alive under rubble. Initial reports said four people were killed.
Hussein Badir, a neighbor of the Berjawi family killed in the strike, said he and other neighbors rushed to the street to dig out the rubble. He said the family was “respectable and respectable” and “not involved in anything.”
For Badir, the attack brought back memories of Israeli shelling during the 2006 war with Hezbollah and the 1996 offensive.
“No one is doing anything to help us,” he said. “It is our right to defend ourselves in our country, Lebanon.”
A woman and two young children were killed in the village of Suane. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children, as well as three Hezbollah fighters.
Fire from Lebanon ripped through the northern Israeli town of Safed early Wednesday morning, killing a female Israeli soldier and injuring eight others, including all soldiers, the Israeli military said, responding to a request for comment on the airstrikes in Lebanon. did not respond immediately.
Hezbollah did not claim the attack in Safad. The group said Thursday that its fighters attacked three Israeli outposts along the border.
Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hezbollah official, said at an event in southern Lebanon on Thursday that the insurgents were “preparing for a possible escalation of war” and “escalation for escalation, evacuation for evacuation, destruction for destruction.” ” will be addressed.
The death toll marked a significant increase in more than four months of daily cross-border exchanges that began with the coronavirus outbreak on October 7. Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The war started Surprise attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Israelan ally of Hezbollah.
Government offices, schools and Lebanese universities were to be shut down on Thursday in protest of the airstrikes.
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Mr. Mourou reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehaib in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
