Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon kill 1, injure 7; highway blocked

Israel carried out intense airstrikes on southern Lebanon early Saturday, killing one person, wounding seven and briefly cutting a highway that links Beirut with parts of south Lebanon, the Health Ministry said.

The pre-dawn airstrikes on the village of Msayleh struck a place that sold heavy machinery, destroying a large number of vehicles.

A vehicle carrying vegetables that happened to be passing by at the time of the strikes was hit, killing one person and wounding another, according to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.

The Health Ministry later said that the one slain was a Syrian citizen, while the wounded were a Syrian national and six Lebanese, including two women.

 

The Israeli military said it struck a place where machinery was stored to be used to rebuild infrastructure for the militant Hezbollah group.

Since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended in late November with a US-brokered ceasefire, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes killing dozens of people. Israel accuses Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its capabilities after the group suffered heavy losses during the war.

Earlier this month, the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for renewed efforts to bring a permanent end to hostilities in Lebanon following the war. He said that until the end of September, they have verified 103 civilians killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire.

The most recent Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated USD 11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

The war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on October 8, 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.