Israeli drone strikes hit highway south of Beirut, killing 8, including 2 children
Israeli drones struck three vehicles on the main highway south of Beirut Wednesday, killing eight people, including a woman and her two children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, hours after telling residents of six southern villages to evacuate.
Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbours that have been at a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.
The Health Ministry confirmed in a statement the three strikes, but didn’t detail the number of people in each vehicle. Two of Wednesday’s drone attacks hit a highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon, while a third, reported the state-run National news agency, struck the town of Saadiyat, near the busy freeway.
A fourth strike on Sidon’s northern entrance happened in the early afternoon, hitting a car, according to state media. An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of three people killed in two of the strikes near the coastal towns of Barja and Jiyeh.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes were reported in different towns and villages while Hezbollah claimed launching more attacks on Israel as both sides keep exchanging fire despite a US-brokered ceasefire that went into effect on April 17.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told reporters Tuesday that since the ceasefire went into effect, 380 people have been killed and 1,122 have been wounded. That brings the toll since the war began to 2,882 killed and 8,786 wounded.
