Israeli Airstrikes Kill At Least 19 In Southern Lebanon As Clashes With Hezbollah Continue

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed at least 19 people, including four women and three children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as clashes with Hezbollah continued despite a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire.

The Guardian reported that in Beirut a single strike on the village of Deir Qanoun al Nahr in the coastal Tyre province killed 10 people, and that another airstrike on the southern city of Nabatieh killed four people and wounded 10 others.

Al Jazeera

NBC News said the same Deir Qanoun al Nahr strike killed 10 people, and it reported that a third strike in the nearby village of Kfar Sir killed five people, including one woman.

The BBC said the Lebanese health ministry and media put the Tuesday death toll at 21, with 12 people killed in a single attack on a house in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, and it added that the National News Agency reported the dead included three children and three women.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, as cited by Al Jazeera, said Israeli fighter jets struck in the village of Doueir on Wednesday, killing five people and injuring two others, and it reported several homes were flattened.

Al Jazeera also quoted Yousef Hasan, displaced from the town of Yuhmor, saying, "Israel “an expansionist state that kills women and children”."

Al Jazeera

In the same Al Jazeera account, Hezbollah said its forces clashed with Israeli troops trying to advance to the centre of the village of Haddatha late at night, and it also reported clashes in the town of Biyyada and the municipality of Rashaf.

The BBC reported that in a statement to it, the Israeli military said "the strike was carried out in an area evacuated of civilians," and it added that the Israeli Defense Forces said it used precise munitions and aerial surveillance to mitigate harm to civilians.

As the ceasefire extension continued, Al Arabiya reported that the Israeli army warned residents of 12 villages and towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately before strikes, saying the evacuation came "in light of Hezbollah violating the ceasefire".

Al Arabiya also said the Israeli army announced it targeted more than 25 Hezbollah infrastructure facilities over the past day, and it quoted the army’s press office saying, "Over the last twenty-four hours, more than 25 Hezbollah infrastructure facilities have been targeted".

The BBC said Hezbollah and Israeli forces continued to exchange fire since the ceasefire came into force, and it reported that Hezbollah said its fighters "clashed... with a force of the Israeli enemy army" near Haddatha and that an Israeli tank was destroyed.

Al Jazeera placed the broader impact in numbers, saying that since March 2, Israel has killed 3,073 people in Lebanon and injured 9,362 others, and displaced more than 1.6 million, about one-fifth of the country’s population, according to Lebanese authorities.