Israel launched airstrikes across south Lebanon, including the coastal city of Sidon, on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, according to a Lebanese medical source.
“The number of martyrs from the Israeli airstrikes in the town of Tayr Dibba is eight, and in Deir Qanun al-Nahr it is four,” said the source, who chose to remain anonymous
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported at least four Israeli strikes on Tayr Dibba and two on Deir Qanun al-Nahr. It also said an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in Sidon, a city that harbours a large number of displaced people.
A correspondent from the AFP news agency reportedly heard an explosion in the area before seeing a car burning as rescuers and firefighters arrived at the scene. Rescuers pulled two people from the vehicle.
The NNA had also reported earlier that Israeli forces captured a municipal councillor and a worker from the border town of Kfarshuba. Israel, meanwhile, claimed it “apprehended” two people who approached the soldiers.
Despite a ceasefire declared in April as part of a broader deal between Tehran and Washington, Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah continued to exchange fire. Hezbollah also rejected a new conditional truce announced after Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington last week.
Israeli forces take away two men
The NNA said on Wednesday morning that “an Israeli patrol took away Kfarshuba municipal council member Mohammad Hassan al-Hajj and worker Ahmad Salah Diab, taking them to an unknown location”.
“The two men were working to pump water to the town of Kfarshuba when the Israeli patrol stopped them and took them away,” said the report.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military in Jerusalem told AFP that it “identified two suspected individuals who approached the area in which [Israeli] soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon”.
“The soldiers apprehended the suspected individuals, who were transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning,” it added.
The residents of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon had chosen to stay throughout the ongoing war despite Israeli orders to evacuate.
The association of Christian border villages in southern Lebanon on Tuesday had issued a statement appealing to the Lebanese government to “immediately open safe humanitarian and medical corridors to ensure the access of citizens, aid, and medical and relief teams to the affected and isolated villages”.
The statement said there was a “dangerous decline in health services due to the disruption or closure of a number of health centres and clinics,” with most roads leading to their villages now “cut off or extremely dangerous”.
Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings for three towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The NNA reported overnight strikes on Nabatieh, one of south Lebanon’s largest city which has now been deserted. Hezbollah also said it targeted Israeli troops in the area.
