Israeli Air Strike Kills Nine in Saksakiyeh, Lebanon, While Targeting Hezbollah Members

An Israeli air strike at lunchtime and without warning destroyed a building in the town of Saksakiyeh in southern Lebanon where a family displaced by the war were sheltering, and nine people were killed there.

“At least 15 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, according to the National News Agency, including eight people – two of them children – killed in three Israeli drone attacks on a key highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon”

Al Jazeera

The BBC reported that the Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah members operating from a building used for military purposes and that they posed an "immediate threat," while it said it was "reviewing reports regarding harm to uninvolved civilians".

Al Jazeera

Relatives described the victims as a woman in her 70s, a son and his wife, another son, her four grandchildren, and her great-granddaughter, who was two years old.

The BBC also said Southern Lebanon is the heartland of the country's Shia community, from which Hezbollah gets most of its support, and that Israel's attacks come day and night in this part of the country.

Al Jazeera said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, including eight people—two of them children—killed in three Israeli drone attacks on a key highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon in the Jiyeh area about 20km (12 miles) south of the Lebanese capital.

Al Jazeera reported that on Wednesday morning the Israeli military issued forced displacement orders for residents of Meiss el-Jabal, Yanouh, Burj Shemali, Hula, Debl and Aabbasiyyeh, warning it would soon act against these six southern Lebanese villages "forcefully".

An-Nahar

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Tyre, said the “conflict is only escalating” and that it is a conflict taking a high toll on civilians living in these areas.

Khodr said one of the few remaining hospitals in the area was in the displacement zone, adding that there are “only three left in the whole district of Tyre, and there are still people who live here.”

The South China Morning Post said Israel hammered south Lebanon with strikes on Tuesday ahead of talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, with Beirut reporting 380 people killed in Israeli attacks since an April 17 ceasefire took effect.

“Hezbollah support endures in south Lebanon as ceasefire fails to stop war with Israel Last Saturday an Israeli air strike, at lunchtime and without warning, destroyed a building where a family displaced by the war were sheltering in a town in southern Lebanon called Saksakiyeh”

BBC

It reported that Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed to turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces and insisted the group’s weapons would not be up for discussion at the talks on Thursday and Friday after the US had called for its disarmament.

The BBC described how more than one million people have been displaced across Lebanon, or one in five of the population, most of them from the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahieh, where Hezbollah holds sway.

Al Jazeera added that the ministry reported at least 512 people have been killed during the truce, bringing the total death toll since the Israeli invasion and bombardment began on March 2 to 2,896, as it said “there is a growing humanitarian crisis, with over a million people displaced.”