UPDATE 2 - Israeli drone targets apartment in southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh

ADDS MORE INFO, CHANGES BYLINE, DATELINE

By Rania Abu Shamala and Idiris Okuduci

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (AA) – An Israeli drone struck an apartment in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon late Wednesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

“The Israeli airstrike targeted a residential apartment in a three-story building adjacent to Palestine Station on Marjayoun Street in the city of Nabatieh. A guided missile (from the drone) was launched towards the apartment, causing severe damage and resulting in injuries among the residents of the building,” said NNA.

Later, NNA reported that eight members of a family were killed in the airstrike.

According to the Al-Manar satellite television station affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, the targeted apartment is also located near Hassan Kamel Al Sabbah High School.

Israeli authorities have not issued any comments so far on the airstrike.

Following the incident, Nabatieh Governor Hwaida Turk issued a statement announcing that government offices and departments in the province will be closed Thursday for security reasons resulting from repeated Israeli attacks with the aim of ensuring the safety of employees.

Most schools and institutes in Nabatieh and the surrounding region also announced that they will be closed on Thursday to ensure the safety of students.

Wednesday was a difficult day in southern Lebanon. A woman and two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Al-Sawaneh in Marjayoun District in Nabatieh Governorate. Several towns were also subjected to intense Israeli shelling.

Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's executive council, threatened Israel with an “appropriate response” to its targeting of areas in southern Lebanon, saying that such actions “cannot pass unpunished.”

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 28,500 people following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

*Writing by Merve Berker