Beirut:
Lebanon’s health ministry said Saturday seven people including two children were killed in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Tyre a day earlier, with rescuers still searching for missing people under the rubble.
“Israeli enemy strikes on the city of Tyre killed seven people including two girls, and injured 46 others,” the ministry said, adding that body parts had been found and will be “identified with DNA testing”.
It added that rubble was being cleared following the strikes as part of ongoing efforts to locate missing persons.
The ministry had on Friday reported a toll of three killed and 30 injured in the strikes.
AFP photos showed rescuers carrying bodies on stretchers amid the wreckage, as rubble and twisted metal were strewn across the street.
Earlier on Saturday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency had said the deadly strikes targeted three buildings in the coastal city, causing “massive damage to dozens of homes”.
The NNA also said “enemy fighter jets” destroyed two heritage houses in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
Hezbollah said on Saturday it targeted Israeli troops, locations and military sites including a base and an area north of Haifa, in addition to downing an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over a south Lebanon village.
Israel intensified its air campaign on Lebanon in September and later sent in ground troops after a year of cross-border clashes.
The escalation came after nearly a year of low-intensity, cross-border attacks by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
More than 3,110 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border exchanges began, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Hindkesharistaff and is published from a syndicated feed.)