Eleven people, including three children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.
Nineteen others were injured in the attacks on Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani, the worst reported toll since agreements in June brought a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli warplanes struck a home on the outskirts of Ansar early on Saturday, killing seven people and flattening the building. Rescue workers continued searching the site for survivors and bodies.
A second strike hours later hit a home in Deir al-Zahrani, killing two people, wounding nine and leaving streets covered in rubble and smoke.
An Israeli drone also targeted a motorcycle in nearby Nabatieh, although it was not immediately clear whether the rider was killed.
The strikes came despite a June ceasefire that had largely halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Neither Ansar nor Deir al-Zahrani lies within Israel’s self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon.
Residents fled north from Nabatieh and surrounding villages after the attacks, while the Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, described the strikes as “extremely dangerous” and said they undermined efforts to restore stability in the south.
“The seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the town of Ansar were not ‘military infrastructure’ and the children and women killed were not military targets,” Salam said.
Israeli military spokesperson Ella Waweya said Israel had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the Ansar and Nabatieh area after fighters from the group attacked soldiers in the Ali Taher area.
Hezbollah condemned the strikes and said the attacks would be met with a response.
