Lebanon state media says two civilians killed in Israeli strike

BEIRUT

Lebanon's state media on Sunday reported that two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike in the south of the country, as fighting between Israel and the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah intensified.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

"Two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted their home in the village of Houla," near the border, the National News Agency reported.

A local official told AFP that those killed were "two brothers, shepherds whose house was destroyed."

The powerful pro-Iran group said in the morning it launched several attack drones toward an Israeli military position in the occupied Golan Heights, just hours after Israel targeted their fighters in a remote area of eastern Lebanon far from the border.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that in response to Hezbollah firing a missile at one of its drones "operating in Lebanese airspace" the day before, its "fighter jets struck a military compound used by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the area of Beqaa in Lebanon".

Since Friday, Israel has been intensely shelling a series of villages in southern Lebanon, where a woman, a Hezbollah-affiliated rescuer and two fighters from the group were killed.

In response, Hezbollah said it launched several attacks on Israeli military targets and shot down an Israeli Hermes 900 drone.

Nearly eight months of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border has left at least 451 people dead in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including more than 80 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, at least 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.