HIBAPRESS-RABAT-AGENCIES
For a year, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged cross-border fire which three weeks ago turned into open war with massive Israeli bombings across the country and ground operations in the south.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israeli strikes intensified.
Just the day before yesterday, eighteen people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village in northern Lebanon, the local Red Cross said, while the Ministry of Health reported that “relief efforts continue.”
This is the first time that the Christian village of Aïto has been targeted since the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah and Israel entered into open war on September 23.
The strike targeted an apartment, according to the Lebanese national agency ANI.
A security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the targeted building housed several displaced families from the south of the country, a Hezbollah stronghold.
“The strike took place just after a man arrived by car” in front of the building, he added.
According to an AFP photographer, human remains were visible in front of the building located at the entrance to the village which was razed by the strike, amid the comings and goings of ambulances.
The Lebanese army had imposed a security cordon around the site, where a fire had broken out, he added.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike against a Shiite village north of Beirut, also located outside Hezbollah strongholds, left at least 16 dead, according to the Ministry of Health.
Six other people were killed outside areas usually considered strongholds of pro-Iranian training, including two in a house in Deir Bella “where displaced people from the south were,” according to ANI.
