4 killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) – Four people were killed and several others injured in fresh Israeli airstrikes on houses in southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday, local media said.

Two people lost their lives when a warplane hit residential buildings in the southern town of Maifodoun, the state news agency NNA reported.

Israeli fighter jets also carried out airstrikes in Sohmor in southern Lebanon, killing two people, the broadcaster said.

Nine airstrikes were also reported in Hermel in northeastern Lebanon near the border with Syria.

No information was yet available about casualties.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala