Israeli attacks kill 9 in Lebanon’s south

Lebanese state media reported on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least six people in a town and a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Sidon area, with a further three fatalities reported in another town.

Israel has intensified its campaign against the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah, whose rocket attacks on 2 March drew Lebanon into the wider regional conflict triggered by US–Israeli strikes on Iran.

Citing the health ministry, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said four people were killed in an “Israeli enemy raid” on the town of Adloun, while another two were killed in a strike on an apartment in the Mieh Mieh refugee camp, which also left four people wounded.

In another part of southern Lebanon, the NNA earlier reported that an Israeli raid on the town of Habboush killed at least three people and injured 18 others.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reported strikes.

In a statement, however, the military said ground troops in southern Lebanon had “dismantled a weapons storage facility”, while the air force killed “several terrorists” who had fled the targeted site.

The statement added that troops had also dismantled Hezbollah command centres containing numerous weapons, though it did not specify the locations.

Hezbollah, for its part, said its fighters had launched multiple attacks targeting Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and inside Israel, where no casualties were immediately reported.

Earlier, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned of an imminent strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold repeatedly targeted during the conflict.

In a statement posted online, he said Israeli forces were targeting Hezbollah’s “military infrastructure… throughout the suburb with increasing force”.

“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately,” Adraee urged residents.

Israel, which occupied southern Lebanon for nearly two decades until 2000, has said its military aims to take control of the border area up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the frontier.

According to Lebanese authorities, the Israeli campaign has killed at least 1,072 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million.

In northern Israel, where repeated air raid sirens have driven residents into shelters, a woman was killed on Tuesday following rocket fire from Lebanon, Israeli officials said.