At least 8 people killed as Israel launches airstrikes in southern Lebanon

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) - At least eight people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, according to health authorities and local media on Monday.

An airstrike hit the border town of Maifadoun early Monday, killing five people and injuring one person, the state news agency NNA reported.

Two more people were killed and others injured in another strike targeting a house in Ansar town in southern Lebanon, the broadcaster said.

One person also lost his life and another was injured when Israeli fighter jets struck a medical center in Seddiqine late Sunday, the Health Ministry said.

Four paramedics were also injured in another airstrike in the town of Srobbine, the ministry added.

Other airstrikes were reported in the towns of Kfar Fila and Maaroub, causing injuries, Lebanese media said.

NNA said a family of five survived an Israeli airstrike and artillery shelling on their house in the town of Debl. A child was injured in the attack, which also caused damage to a nearby church.

Israel has launched a huge air campaign across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,488 people, injuring over 4,297 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul