At least 12 people killed in continued Israeli strikes on S. Lebanon

At least 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon Wednesday, including in the coastal city of Sidon, according to a Lebanese medical source.

Earlier, Israeli forces seized a municipal councillor and a worker from the border town of Kfarshuba, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, while Israel said it “apprehended” two people who approached its soldiers.

A cease-fire in Lebanon, meant to have gone into force in April, was never observed and a new conditional truce announced after Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington last week was rejected by Hezbollah and both sides have continued to trade fire.

The agreement did not mention a halt to Israeli attacks.

“The number of martyrs from the Israeli airstrikes in the town of Tayr Dibba is eight, and in Deir Qanun al-Nahr it is four,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The NNA had reported at least four Israeli strikes on Tayr Dibba and two on Deir Qanun al-Nahr.

It also reported an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in Sidon, a city relatively spared from major Israeli attacks and which hosts a large number of displaced people.

An AFP correspondent heard an explosion in the area before seeing a car burning as rescuers and firefighters headed to the scene.

The correspondent saw rescuers pull two people from the targeted vehicle.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 in support of Iran.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks since March have killed nearly 3,700 people and displaced more than 1 million others.

Neither side has respected a cease-fire first announced in mid-April.

Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any deal to end the wider Middle East war, whose prospects were questioned after Tehran launched attacks on U.S. bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait in response to American strikes on its territory.

Two men seized

The NNA said Wednesday morning that “an Israeli patrol took away Kfarshuba municipal council member Mohammad Hassan al-Hajj and worker Ahmad Salah Diab, taking them to an unknown location.”

“The two men were working to pump water to the town of Kfarshuba when the Israeli patrol stopped them and took them away,” it added.

The Israeli military said in a statement to AFP in Jerusalem that it “identified two suspected individuals who approached the area in which (Israeli) soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon.”

“The soldiers apprehended the suspected individuals, who were transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning.”

Kfarshuba is among a few southern villages, most of them Christian, whose residents chose to stay throughout the Israel-Hezbollah war despite Israeli orders to evacuate.

On Tuesday, the association of Christian border villages in southern Lebanon issued a statement urging the Lebanese government to “immediately open safe humanitarian and medical corridors to ensure the access of citizens, aid, and medical and relief teams to the affected and isolated villages.”

They pointed to “a dangerous decline in health services due to the disruption or closure of several health centres and clinics,” with most roads leading to their villages now “cut off or extremely dangerous.”

The incident comes a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 13 people in and around the southern city of Tyre, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The Israeli military also issued evacuation warnings for three southern Lebanese towns Wednesday.

The NNA also reported overnight strikes on Nabatieh, one of the south’s largest cities that is now largely deserted.

The city is close to areas the Israeli military recently pushed into, including the medieval-era Beaufort castle, which overlooks the district.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it targeted Israeli troops in the area.

DAILYSABAH