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BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese town killed at \u200bleast 13 people including six children on Monday, Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said, in one of the deadliest days of Israeli bombardment in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Fears of a renewed Israeli military campaign are mounting in Lebanon after days of escalating strikes despite a June ceasefire that was meant to halt fighting between the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
A woman who said she was related to at least three of the dead said one attack hit a residential building as children were getting ready for school. The Israeli military said it struck people seen transferring weapons in the area of the town, Kfar Rumman.<\/p>\n
At the site, Reuters reporters saw children\u2019s schoolbooks strewn between chunks of concrete where the building once stood. Rescue workers with heavy machinery had worked throughout the morning \u200cto pull bodies \u200cout from underneath the rubble.<\/p>\n
Eight-year-old Mustafa Farhat lost his grandparents and his mother in \u200bthe \u200cstrike, \u2060locals said. \u200bRescue \u2060workers were still searching for his father\u2019s body on Monday morning while the boy lay in the hospital being treated for his wounds, they added.<\/p>\n
One of his relatives, Mona Farhat, told Reuters it was their home that was hit in the run-up to school-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did they target? What is the goal they are targeting? Do they want us to leave our land? They are mistaken,\u201d Farhat said at the hospital.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said in an updated toll on its website that 12 people, including six children and three women, were killed in that attack on a residential building on Monday. State media had earlier said the attack happened after midnight.<\/p>\n
A separate Israeli \u2060drone strike on a civilian vehicle in the town killed one medic, the health ministry \u200csaid. Two other medics were wounded in the strike, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The strikes on \u200cKfar Rumman came without an online evacuation warning from the Israeli military.<\/p>\n
Israel reviewing reports of civilians hurt <\/strong><\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military said steps had been \u200ctaken to mitigate harm \u201cto uninvolved individuals, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.\u201d The military said it was reviewing \u200cthe report that \u201cuninvolved individuals\u201d were harmed as a result of the strikes.<\/p>\n The Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched two explosive drones overnight toward Israeli troops operating near the Ali Al-Taher ridge, a strategic cluster of hills in southeastern Lebanon where Hezbollah is thought to have built an underground military complex.<\/p>\n Israel said last week that it had cleared Hezbollah fighters out of the ridge. Hezbollah has not commented and Reuters could not independently confirm \u200cthe military situation at Ali Al-Taher.<\/p>\n In the days since, Israel has ramped up deadly strikes on towns to the ridge\u2019s north and west where residents had returned after the June ceasefire, \u2060Lebanese security officials told Reuters.<\/p>\n The \u2060officials said they were anticipating continued escalations in the south in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n On Sunday, at least 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes on three towns near the ridge, Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said in an updated toll.<\/p>\n Two of the dead were women killed in strikes on the town of Arab Salim, where Israel\u2019s military had issued an online evacuation warning at 6:04 a.m. local time (0304 GMT).<\/p>\n The health ministry said separate Israeli strikes on Sunday had destroyed the Ghandour hospital in the town of Nabatieh Al-Fawqa.<\/p>\n Four other people were killed on Friday, including a woman, it added. Those strikes came without evacuation warnings.<\/p>\n Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on March 2 \u2014 two days after the start of US and Israeli strikes on Iran \u2014 triggering an Israeli air and ground offensive.<\/p>\n The dead include more than 250 children, nearly 400 women and more than 130 medics, according to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry. The ministry does not otherwise distinguish between civilians and militants, and Hezbollah has not \u200bissued a toll for its own fighters.<\/p>\n The ceasefire saw \u200bviolence decrease dramatically, but Israeli troops occupying swathes of southern Lebanon have continued razing villages in the self-declared security zone. Israel\u2019s military has continued carrying out strikes both within the zone and to its north, mostly without evacuation warnings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n