16 people killed in 2 Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - The Israeli army on Tuesday morning carried out two airstrikes on southern Lebanon, killing at least 16 people, including children.

According to the official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), 10 people were killed from the same family in an airstrike on their home in the southern town of Al-Dawoudia.

A medical source told Anadolu that another airstrike on the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, located in the south of Sidon, killed six people, including three children, and injured several others.

Established in 1948, Ein el-Hilweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, with 50,000 registered people, according to UN figures, though unofficial statistics put the camp’s population at 70,000.

The Israeli army early Tuesday shelled several southern Lebanese towns, coinciding with Tel Aviv's announcement of a “limited” ground operation in southern Lebanon.

On Monday evening, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the past 24 hours had reached 95, with 172 injured.

Since Sept. 23, Israel has launched massive airstrikes against what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, killing more than 1,057 people and injuring over 2,950 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Several Hezbollah leaders have been killed in the assault, including Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,600 people, most of them women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.