At least ten people, including eight civilians, were killed in two Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday and Thursday.
This is the heaviest civilian death toll in more than four months of violence between Israel and the powerful Hezbollah in Lebanon, an ally of Palestinian Hamas.
Exchanges of fire are daily at the border but the strikes are carried out further and further on each side of the border.
What happened this Thursday?
Rescuers found a child alive on Thursday in the rubble of a targeted residential building in the town of Nabatiyé, in which at least five members of the same family were killed, according to an AFP photographer and state media.
The ground floor and first floor of the building were blown away and furniture was scattered in the area, noted the AFP photographer.
The bodies of a man, Hussein Berjaoui, his two daughters, his sister and his grandson have already been removed from the rubble, according to the National Information Agency (ANI, official).
A previous report reported four deaths.
VIDEO.
Who was Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas number 2 killed by the IDF in Lebanon?
Another of Hussein Berjaoui's grandchildren, aged three, was rescued on Thursday, a local official told AFP.
His mother and brother were killed and his father was seriously injured.
An attack a few hours ago
According to ANI, “a drone equipped with a guided missile” targeted the building.
Thursday morning, rescuers were searching for at least two women still missing in the rubble of a targeted residential building in the town of Nabatiyé, according to an AFP photographer on site.
Also read: Israel-Hezbollah: a war on the Lebanese border ever closer?
This is the second strike in recent hours.
On Wednesday, a woman, her son and her son-in-law were also killed in the village of Sawaneh.
For its part, Hezbollah announced the death of two of its fighters.
On the Israeli side, a soldier was killed in a rocket attack from Lebanon.
Hezbollah promises a “response” to this “aggression”
Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi, visiting the north of the country, said Wednesday that “the next campaign will be a very strong offensive,” according to an army statement.
For his part, a senior Hezbollah official, Hachem Safieddine, warned that “this aggression (..) will not go unanswered.”
Read alsoJournalist killed in Lebanon: an AFP investigation implicates the Israeli army in the October 13 strike
Violence between the Israeli army and Hezbollah has caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday that a ceasefire would only come when fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends, threatening to retaliate against any Israeli attack.
UN calls to “stop the escalation” of violence
The spokesperson for the UN Secretary General affirmed that the “escalation” of violence in the border area “is dangerous and must stop”, while Washington called for favoring the “diplomatic route” to reduce the tensions.
France, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, argued that the situation in Lebanon is “serious but it is not irreversible”.
Also read “Trying to continue living”: for those close to the French killed on October 7, the long road to resilience
Since the day after the bloody Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has targeted Israeli military positions on the border, in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Israel, for its part, regularly bombs southern Lebanon and carries out targeted attacks against leaders of the Lebanese Islamist movement.
In more than four months, at least 248 people, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other allied groups, but also 33 civilians, have been killed in southern Lebanon, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, 16 people were killed, ten soldiers and six civilians, according to the army.