An Israeli attack on a residential building in the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon killed around ten people, including two children, and injured five others, the state news agency NNA reported on Saturday.
The death toll from the attack in the Nabatieh region is one of the highest in southern Lebanon since an almost daily exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces across the border broke out after the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October.
International mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, which diplomats say could help avert a larger war with Lebanon on the front line.
The Israeli military said on its Telegram channel that the air force had attacked a weapons depot belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah “in the Nabatieh area,” about 12 kilometers from the nearest point on the Israeli border, overnight.
Israeli artillery hit more targets near the border in southern Lebanon, the military said, following air strikes on Friday on “Hezbollah military structures” near Hanine and Maroun el-Ras in southern Lebanon.
The killings of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah operations chief in southern Lebanon, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, in quick succession in late July, prompted vows of revenge from Hezbollah, Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region, which blamed Israel.
Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr in an attack on southern Beirut, but did not comment directly on the killing of Haniyeh during his visit to Tehran.
To avert a larger conflict, Western and Arab diplomats are traveling through the region.
On Thursday, mediators made a new attempt to persuade Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The talks took place in the Gulf emirate of Qatar and continued on Friday.
Negotiations are expected to resume in Cairo “before the end of next week,” mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States said in a joint statement.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said in Beirut on Thursday that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was “necessary” for peace in the region, including Lebanon.
“We are all concerned about the situation in the region,” Sejourne said after a meeting with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
According to a count by Agence France-Presse, 579 people have died in Lebanon in the cross-border violence between Lebanon and Israel, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but including at least 121 civilians.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians were killed, according to army sources.
In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel went to war.
Additional reporting from Reuters
