Israeli Drones Strike Highway South Of Beirut, Killing 8 Including Two Children

Israeli drones struck three vehicles on the main highway south of Beirut on Wednesday, killing eight people including two children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

“Three Israeli drone strikes on cars on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon have killed at least eight people, including two children, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported”

Al Jazeera

The ministry said the three raids on the Saida-South coastal highway in Barja, Jiyeh and Saadiyat resulted in 8 martyrs, including two children.

Al Jazeera

Two of the attacks hit a highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon, while a third struck Saadiyat near the freeway, and a fourth strike on Sidon’s northern entrance hit a car, according to state media.

An Associated Press photographer saw bodies of three people killed in two of the strikes near the coastal towns of Barja and Jiyeh, as Israeli airstrikes were reported in different towns and villages across southern Lebanon.

The violence came as Lebanon and Israel were scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday, brokered by the United States, with the war having started on March 2 after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.

In a separate set of strikes, Lebanon said Israeli air strikes killed at least 13 people in southern Lebanon, where a ceasefire has failed to stop the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said overnight a house in Kfar Dounine was hit, killing six people and injuring seven others, while on Tuesday afternoon Lebanon’s health ministry said two paramedics from the state-run Lebanese Civil Defense emergency service were killed and a third was injured in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh.

Al-Jazeera Net

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed "sadness and regret at the killing of two Civil Defence members" in Nabatieh, identifying them as Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura.

The health ministry accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting the paramedics, saying, "This targeting constitutes further evidence of the Israeli enemy's blatant violation of international humanitarian law".

The BBC also reported that Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday that 108 emergency medical services and healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon during the war, with more than 140 Israeli attacks recorded on ambulances and medical facilities.

As the strikes continued, the Israeli military issued forced evacuation 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."

The military told residents anyone who remains "endangers their life" and warned them to move at least 1,000 metres away to "open areas," while Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said one of the few remaining hospitals in the area was in the evacuation zone.

Khodr said, "There are only three left in the whole district of Tyre, and there are still people who live here. At least 100,000 people still live here," describing the hospitals as lifelines for people in the district.

Al Jazeera also reported that on Tuesday 13 people were killed in attacks in the south, including two Lebanese Civil Defence paramedics, Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, and that at least 380 people had been killed during the truce.

The same coverage said Lebanon and Israel were expected to hold a new round of direct negotiations in Washington on Thursday, brokered by the United States, while Hezbollah said it opposes the talks in the US.