Three children among five dead as Israel strikes south Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon – AFP

Separate Israeli strikes Tuesday in south Lebanon killed five people including three Syrian children, with Hezbollah announcing rocket fire at Israel in retaliation.

“Three Syrian children” were killed “in an enemy raid that targeted farmland in the village of Umm Toot”, the National News Agency (NNA) said.

It also said an “enemy” drone strike had targeted a motorcycle on the Kfar Tebnit road elsewhere in south Lebanon, killing two Syrians.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP the two Syrians were “civilians” who worked nearby and had been swimming in the area.

The NNA said that “eyewitnesses reported that the motorbike was carrying two people and that when a number of citizens tried to approach the bike… it was subjected to a second strike”.

Hezbollah said it launched rounds of “Katyusha rockets” at northern Israel in response to the Israeli strikes.

The group in separate statements mentioned both “the death of two civilians” in Kfar Tebnit and “the horrible massacre in Umm Toot village” as reasons for the retaliatory fire.

The United Nations children’s agency said that “more children are at risk as long as the violence continues.”

“The killing of three more children by an airstrike today as they were reportedly playing in front of their home in south Lebanon is horrific,” UNICEF said on social media platform X.

Hezbollah has traded almost daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since early October last year.

The Israeli military said 40 projectiles fired from Lebanon were initially identified Tuesday, followed by a further 10 later in the day.

In Lebanon, the cross-border violence since October has killed 511 people, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 17 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, according to authorities.