Israeli Airstrikes on Kfar Rumman Kill at Least 12, Lebanon Health Ministry Says

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon’s Kfar Rumman killed at least 12 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, with one strike hitting a building that killed 11 people including two children and four women.

“Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese town killed at least 12 people including two children”

Reuters

The BBC said the Health Ministry reported 11 deaths in the night raid that destroyed a three-story residential building in Kfar Ruman near Nabatieh, while a medic was killed in another strike targeting a vehicle in the same town.

ANHA

Reuters reported that Israeli strikes came early on Monday and that a separate Israeli drone strike on a civilian vehicle in the town killed one medic, while two other medics were wounded.R

Reuters also described the scene where rescue workers with heavy machinery worked throughout the morning to pull bodies out from underneath the rubble, and it said children’s schoolbooks were strewn between chunks of concrete where the building once stood.R

The Israeli military said the strikes were in retaliation for two Hezbollah drone attacks that exploded while targeting Israeli troops in the area from the Ali al-Taher ridge, and it said it was reviewing reports that “uninvolved individuals” were harmed.

At the hospital, Reuters quoted Mona Farhat saying, "What did they target? RWhat is the goal they are targeting? Do they want us to leave our land?" after she said the home hit was theirs.

Reuters also quoted Farhat’s relative Mustafa Farhat, an eight-year-old whose grandparents and his mother were killed in the strike, while rescue workers were still searching for his father’s body.R

BBC

The BBC reported that Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the “serious escalation” threatens the ceasefire brokered by the United States in June and urged the United States and the international community to act to stop the Israeli attacks.

In a different account, Palestine Chronicle said Israeli warplanes struck a three-story residential building in Kafr Rumman shortly after midnight and that NNA described the attack as a “new bloody massacre,” with emergency and ambulance teams recovering nine bodies from the rubble.

Palestine Chronicle further said a drone strike on a civilian vehicle killed two paramedics identified as Ali Shahrour and Hadi Farhat, while the BBC described a medic killed in a separate strike on a vehicle in the same town.

The BBC said the flare-up threatens the truce and described how some residents had returned to their homes after a decline in fighting following the June truce, but the recent escalation forced families to flee again.

“threatens the truce”

BBC

The BBC quoted Sarah Muallam, a 35-year-old resident of Kfar Rumman, saying she was sleeping with her five children when she heard the explosions and that she is now preparing to move with her family to Sidon in search of a safer place.

Reuters reported that the Israeli military said steps had been taken to mitigate harm to “uninvolved individuals,” including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance, and it said the military was reviewing the report that “uninvolved individuals” were harmed.R

France 24 said Israel’s military vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah, accusing the Iran-backed militants of repeated violations of a ceasefire in place since June, and it said Hezbollah had not commented on the threat or on the escalation.F

BBC also said the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that the escalation in southern Lebanon has killed at least 27 people over three days, while Reuters said Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on 2 March.R