Israeli drone strike kills 6 women, children from same family in eastern Lebanon

Mohammed Ragawi

BEIRUT (AA) - Six women and children from the same family were killed and eight others were injured in an Israeli drone attack on the Nabi Anam neighborhood in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese media reports.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, the Israeli military carried out the strike at 5.50 am local time (0250GMT), targeting the home of Ali Abdo Othman in a densely populated residential area.

The strike destroyed the building and damaged nearby homes, resulting in the deaths of six women and children from the Othman family, with eight other residents sustaining injuries ranging from critical to minor, the news agency said.

The injured were transported to hospitals for treatment, it added.

The agency reported that local civil defense teams worked to extinguish fires at the targeted home and assisted in rescue operations, recovering the bodies from under the rubble.

Volunteers from the Islamic Health Authority, the Lebanese Red Cross, and the Palestinian Shifa Association also participated in the search and rescue efforts, it added.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon since Sept. 23 against what it says are Hezbollah targets, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing over 1.34 million.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,600 people, most of them women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

Israel expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 this year by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio