Lebanon says 9 dead in strikes including three children

BEIRUT: Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the south killed nine people including three children on Saturday, the deadliest raids since deals in June eased hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel “escalated its attacks on the south” early Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said, reporting that warplanes struck a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar and carried out a “series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge”, a strategic hill overlooking the Nabatieh area.

It later reported a strike on the southern town of Deir Zahrani.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Israeli strikes on the country’s south were a “clear message” on negotiations between the two countries, ahead of the next round of US-sponsored talks early next month in Rome.

Aoun condemned the “ongoing Israeli attacks” on the south and “repeated violations of the framework agreement… and international law on protecting civilians, which led to the death of an entire family in the village of Ansar”, according to a statement from his office, adding that “these violations are a clear message on the negotiation process”.

Lebanon’s health ministry said seven people were killed “including three children and two women,” in Ansar, with another two people killed and nine others wounded in Deir Zahrani, adding that the toll there was provisional.

An AFP correspondent in Ansar saw a destroyed building as rescuers working to remove human remains from the rubble, and a swimming pool clouded and grey from dust and debris.

Abbas Khalil, 60, said he was doing his early morning prayers when the strike hit.

Israeli army in a statement claimed that it struck “Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar”, adding that the move came “in response to an action by the organisation” against Israeli soldiers in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that “the seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the village of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’ and the women and children who were killed are not military targets.”

“Israel must halt this escalation,” he said, adding that it was “extremely dangerous and undermines efforts to consolidate stability in the south”.