Israeli airstrikes target southern Lebanon, destroy historic mosque

By Anadolu staff

In a series of pre-dawn airstrikes on Sunday, Israeli warplanes targeted multiple locations in southern Lebanon, causing significant destruction, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

At approximately 3:45 a.m., an airstrike leveled the historic old mosque in the center of the town of Kfar Tibnit, completely destroying the structure, the agency reported.

Earlier, at around 12:15 a.m., another airstrike targeted a three-story building next to Ghabris station on the Zefta-Nabatieh highway, also destroying it, it added.

The strike caused the closure of the road as debris from the building blocked access. The same building had been previously struck in an air raid a week earlier, partially damaging it.

A third airstrike was carried out at approximately 1:30 a.m., this time targeting the town of Aita al-Shaab. No further details on casualties or additional damage were immediately available.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against, what it claims, Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 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 nearly 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 a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara