An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon has killed nine people, Lebanon’s health ministry has said, as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Hezbollah movement.
The toll from the strike in the Nabatieh area included “a woman and her two children” and left five other people wounded, two critically, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Israel’s military, on its Telegram channel, said the air force had struck a weapons storage facility of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah overnight “in the area of Nabatieh”, located about 12km (seven miles) from the nearest point of the Israeli border.
Earlier, the military posted on social media that its fighter jets attacked “military buildings” in the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab, more than 50km (31 miles) south of Nabatieh city.
The attacks come amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, which have been engaged in cross-border clashes since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 and Israel responded with a war on Gaza.
According to a tally of casualties by AFP news agency, Israeli forces have killed about 570 people in Lebanon, including at least 118 civilians and mostly Hezbollah members, during the cross-border clashes since October. During the same period, Israel has attacked Lebanon over 6,500 times, according to the news agency.
On the Israeli side, army figures report that 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed.
The latest air strike is believed to be in response to Hezbollah’s support for Hamas and their near-daily fire exchanges with Israeli forces. The tensions escalated after a deadly rocket attack in July killed at least 12 people, including children, in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah.
In addition, Israel’s killing of Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in a missile attack in the suburbs of Beirut, also contributed to the rising tensions between the two sides.
As the situation remains tense, both countries are bracing themselves for more violence and calling for international assistance to help resolve the conflict. The United Nations has offered to mediate the situation, but so far, both sides have refused to engage in official talks.