'Children killed' in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

A woman and two children are reported to be among four people killed in a wave of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials evacuate a person who was injured in the city of Safed by a rocket attack. Pic: Reuters

Security sources told the Reuters news agency the deaths came during Israeli strikes on a village.

Eleven people were wounded across southern areas and the level of damage was “vast”, the sources said.

Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters.

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Media reports in Lebanon said buildings were on fire after the attacks by Israel.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government said the strikes were launched after a woman died and eight other people were injured in a rocket attack fired from Lebanon on the Safed area in northern Israel, in which a military base was also hit.

Officials said the northern Israeli city of Safed was targeted by rocket fire from inside Lebanon. Pic: Reuters

Hezbollah is thought to be behind the initial rocket attack, but has not claimed responsibility.

The armed group did not announce any operations on Wednesday – but the head of its executive council warned the Israeli attacks “cannot pass without a response”.

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in the areas of Jabal el Braij, Houneh, Dunin, Aadchit and Souaneh.

“Among the targets struck were military compounds, operational control rooms, and terror infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists.

“Several targets belonged to the Redwan Forces.”

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Cross-border shelling has already killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and some Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months.

It came after the armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a deadly assault on Israel last October.

The exchange in fire has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the border areas of each country.