Beirut, Lebanon:
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Sunday that at least eight people were killed and 25 injured in an Israeli airstrike near the southern city of Sidon, and an AFP correspondent said a building was targeted.
The strike hit a densely populated area on the outskirts of Sidon, with an influx of displaced families from areas further south.
It is the first attack in the region since the Israeli-Hezbollah war broke out last month.
“Eight people died as a result of the attack on Haret Saida by Israeli enemies,” the Health Ministry announced, revising the previous death toll of two.
The state news agency said children were among the victims.
An AFP correspondent said one apartment building was destroyed in the strike at the three-story apartment complex.
Surrounding shops and buildings were also damaged, the correspondent said, as emergency workers rushed to the scene of the attack to search for survivors.
The Israeli military had issued an evacuation order for several areas in southern Lebanon on Sunday, but Haret Saida was not among the areas targeted.
The war since September 23 has killed at least 1,615 people in Lebanon, according to national health ministry figures compiled by AFP, but the real number is likely to be higher due to data gaps. .
At least 1.3 million people have been displaced, of whom more than 800,000 live within Lebanon’s borders, according to the United Nations Migration Agency.
Lebanese authorities say more than 500,000 people have entered Syria, most of them Syrians.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
