10 dead in Israeli strike, 5 wounded: Lebanon health ministry

At least 10 people including a woman and her two children were killed Aug 17 by an Israeli strike on a residential building in the city of Nabatieh city in south Lebanon.

Five other people were also wounded, two of them critically in the strike, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The strike came after ceasefire talks between Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel in Doha on Aug 16. The negotiators had decided to meet again next week.

The victims were all Syrian citizens, Lebanon state news agency NNA reported, adding that a final toll of the strike would be announced after DNA tests were conducted to determine the identity of the victims.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military claimed on its Telegram channel that the air force struck a weapons warehouse of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah overnight “in the area of Nabatieh”, located about 12km (seven miles) from the nearest point to the Israeli border.

Earlier, the military posted on social media that its fighter jets attacked “military buildings” in the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab, more than 50km (31 miles) south of Nabatieh city.

Tensions have soared in the region in recent weeks, after a rocket strike blamed on Hezbollah killed 12 children and teens in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel responded with the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in the suburbs of Beirut.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, as has Iran for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of the Palestinian Hamas group.