Israeli strike on Lebanese house kills five

Smoke billows above buildings following an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Majdal Zoun on March 9, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)

At least five people were killed on Saturday, including four members of a single family, and nine wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residence in southern Lebanon, the country’s official National News Agency reported.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October between Israel and the Gaza militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.

“The attack against a house in the Khirbet Selm area killed a family of four,” a couple and their two children, and one other person, the NNA said, adding that the mother was also pregnant.

The strike demolished the house, wounding at least nine others who lived nearby, it said.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October at least 312 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, and 56 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

The fighting is mainly along border regions but fears have grown of a broader conflict in Lebanon.

Last Tuesday, a Lebanese couple and their son were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern border village of Hula.