Israeli air strikes kill 12 in southern Lebanon village, health ministry says

Israeli air strikes on a village in southern Lebanon have killed at least 12 people, the Lebanese health ministry says.

Eleven people, including two children and four women, were killed in a strike that destroyed a residential building in Kfar Roummane overnight. A second strike on a vehicle killed a paramedic.

The Israeli military said it struck infrastructure sites belonging to the Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah, as well as "several terrorists" transferring weapons, in retaliation for a drone attack on troops in an occupied area of the country.

Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon have killed at least 27 people over the past three days, according to the health ministry.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the "dangerous escalation" was jeopardising June's US-brokered ceasefire, which was meant to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

He urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop the attacks.

The Israeli military has intensified its strikes in southern Lebanon in recent days.

They have happened in places near the strip of territory that is occupied by Israeli troops, and large numbers of residents have again been fleeing those areas.

The latest attacks targeted Kfar Roummane, in Nabatieh district, which is only a few hundred metres from what the Israeli military calls its "security zone".

The first air strike destroyed a three-storey residential building near the town's Shuyuiya roundabout shortly after midnight, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

The Lebanese health ministry said that in addition to the 11 people killed, eight were injured, including three children and a paramedic from the Islamic Health Association, which is an emergency service linked to Hezbollah.

The second strike hit a vehicle carrying paramedics from the Islamic Risala Scout Association, killing one of them and injuring two others, according to the ministry. The Risala Scouts is an emergency service affiliated with the Amal movement, a Shia group allied to Hezbollah.

The health ministry said the death toll "serves as further irrefutable evidence of the grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli occupation, targeting medics and children".

A resident of Kfar Roummane, Sara Moallaem, 35, told the BBC that she had been asleep with her five children in their rental home when she heard the explosions.

She immediately grabbed her children and moved them into the home's "safe room" while they waited for the booms and the sirens to stop.

Some of those killed in the strikes were distant relatives of Sara's husband. She insisted they were civilians with no affiliation to Hezbollah.

Sara said she was planning to move her family to the coastal city of Sidon for their safety.

"During the day, it is almost normal, [with] people going back and forth. But as it comes near the night, things escalate, and now my children are afraid and I am packing now for the sixth or seventh time. It is terrible," she explained.

"Now that they are targeting civilians, I don't want to weep for my children."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck "several Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites across southern Lebanon" overnight after the group's fighters launched two explosive drones towards Israeli troops operating in the Ali al-Taher ridge area, which is just south of Kfar Roummane and inside the Israeli-declared "security zone".

"Additionally, the IDF struck several terrorists who were identified transferring weapons in the area of Kfar Roummane, in order to remove the threat they posed to IDF soldiers."

"The claim that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strikes is being reviewed," it added.

The IDF also said it had struck the Nabatieh area and killed several Hezbollah fighters on Sunday following a separate drone attack.

Lebanon's health ministry said 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the south of the country on Sunday. They included nine people in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, which is south of Kfar Roummane, and two women in Arab Salim, to the north of the village.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. But on Sunday, one of the group's members of parliament, Ali Ammar, declared that "the language of resistance is the only language that is effective against the Israeli enemy".

The ceasefire agreement between Lebanon, Israel and the US calls for Hezbollah to disarm, Israeli forces to withdraw gradually from southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese army to deploy across the area.

Hezbollah has rejected the framework, saying the provisions linking Israel's withdrawal to the group's disarmament cross "all red lines".

Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel, the US and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah - which is supported by Iran - launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Israel responded by launching a bombing campaign across Lebanon and invading a significant part of the country's south.

At least 4,362 people have been killed in Lebanon during the conflict, including 395 women and 259 children, according to the health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Israeli authorities say 40 Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed during the conflict.

Additional reporting by Ghaith Solh