9 killed in Israeli airstrike on SE Lebanese town

BEIRUT, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) — Nine people were killed early Friday in an Israeli airstrike on the southeastern Lebanese town of Shebaa, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement that the Israeli raids in the past 24 hours on towns and villages in southern Lebanon have killed 49 people and wounded 80 others.
Lebanese military sources told Xinhua that an Israeli warplane fired two air-to-ground missiles on Friday at around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) on a house in the southeastern town of Shebaa.
The sources, who spoke anonymously, said the raid killed nine people from one family and destroyed their house. The Lebanese Red Cross have transferred their bodies to Hasbaya Governmental Hospital.
They added that Israeli warplanes carried out 39 airstrikes on southern Lebanon and 30 airstrikes on eastern Lebanon at dawn and in the morning, destroying about 80 homes and a fuel station and damaging the electricity network.
For its part, the official National News Agency reported that the Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale air raid starting at midnight focused on the city of Nabatieh, especially the vicinity of the cemetery in the Al-Masha’a and the Al-Bayad neighborhoods.
Confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated after the latter announced the expansion of its strike targets against Hamas into Lebanon to allow the return of settlers to northern Israel who were displaced, while Hezbollah announced its entry into a new phase in the battle to support Gaza.
Since Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border amid fears of a broader conflict as the clashes between Hamas and Israel continue in the Gaza Strip. ■