Lebanon says 19 killed in Israeli air strikes

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 19 people in southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry has said.

Ten of them, including three children and three women, were killed in a single attack that hit a house in the town of Deir Qanoun, the ministry said.

Lebanon was drawn into the war on 2 March, when the Iran-backed armed Shia Islamist group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader.

The latest deaths less than a week after the US said that Lebanon and Israel had agreed to extend a ceasefire by 45 days, with the two sides set to resume talks at the beginning of June.

Despite the extension, both Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire, especially in southern Lebanon.

Israel says it is targeting the armed group Hezbollah but civilians have often been killed, including women and children. Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones into communities in northern Israel and against Israeli troops occupying parts of southern Lebanon.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military has announced that another soldier was killed in an attack by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

In the statement, Lebanon’s health ministry said that in addition to the deaths in Deir Qanoun, three people were wounded, including a young girl.

A further nine people were killed and 29 injured in Israeli air strikes on the Nabatieh and Tyre districts, the ministry said.

The BBC has contacted the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

The number of people killed in the country by Israeli strikes during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since March has surpassed 3,000, the health ministry said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters “clashed … with a force of the Israeli enemy army that tried to advance towards the vicinity of the town square of Haddatha,” Agence France-Presse reported.

The Iran-backed group said its fighters destroyed an Israeli tank.

Hezbollah also said it attacked Israeli forces in southern Lebanon as well as Iron Dome air defence platforms near the border in northern Israel, AFP reported.

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement allows Israel to carry out strikes it says are aimed at countering Hezbollah’s military activity.

Israeli ground forces continue to occupy a strip of territory stretching roughly 10km (6 miles) from the Lebanese frontier that they seized during the conflict.

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