Four Lebanese killed in Israeli airstrike
An Israeli airstrike killed four members of a family in a house in a border village in southern Lebanon yesterday, civil defence and security sources said.
The four were killed in Meiss al Jabal, which has suffered extensive damage in regular exchanges of fire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group since the start of offensive in Gaza last October.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it fired "tens" of Katyusha rockets at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, a northern town close to the Lebanese border, in retaliation.
Airstrikes and shelling have taken place sporadically but both sides have pulled back from all-out war. More than 250 Hezbollah members and 75 civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October, security sources there say. In Israel, missile fire coming from Lebanon has killed around a dozen troops and several civilians, Israeli sources say.
Both the US and France have made diplomatic efforts to calm tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN children's agency warned Tuesday that conflict on Lebanon's border was taking a heavy toll on children, with thousands out of school and healthcare "critically impacted".
"We are deeply alarmed by the situation of children and families who have been forced from their homes," Edouard Beigbeder, the Lebanon representative for Unicef, said in a statement.
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