BEIRUT: An Israeli airstrike on northern Lebanon killed 18 people on Monday, according to the Lebanese Red Cross, with the health ministry and official media reporting an Israeli raid on the Christian-majority Zgharta district far from Hezbollah strongholds.
“Eighteen dead and four wounded in the strike on Aito,” the Lebanese Red Cross reported, referring to a village in the Christian-majority Zgharta district.
Lebanon’s health ministry had earlier confirmed nine deaths, while Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel targeted a residential apartment building in the village, far from Hezbollah’s usual strongholds.
Witnesses at the scene described a devastating aftermath, with the strike leveling a residential building at the entrance to the village. Body parts were scattered amid the rubble, while Red Cross volunteers combed through debris in search of survivors.
Ambulances evacuated the wounded as the Lebanese army imposed a security cordon around the area. The attack also sparked a fire at the site.
The strike comes just two days after an Israeli air raid on Deir Billa, also in northern Lebanon, killed two people and wounded four others.
Since the escalation began on September 23, more than 1,300 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
