At least 21 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon, health authorities have said.
Eight other people were wounded in the attack in the Aitou village in the Christian-majority Zgharta district on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli attack targeted a “residential apartment” in the village.
It’s the first time the area has been attacked in a year of hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, according to NNA.
Hezbollah is mainly present in the south of the country and the southern suburbs of Beirut. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Videos from Lebanese media showed a large plume of smoke rising from the hilly village, with several destroyed cars next to a severely damaged building, as people tried to remove bodies from beneath rubble and trees.
The strike came a day after a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers and wounded dozens of others.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the base on Monday, said Israel would continue to attack Hezbollah “without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut”.
It was the deadliest known Hezbollah attack since the Israeli military escalated the war in recent weeks, drastically expanding its bombardment across Lebanon and launching a ground offensive in the south. More than one million people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the fighting, according to Lebanese officials.
On Monday, Hezbollah said its fighters battled with Israeli soldiers in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab. According to a statement, Hezbollah fighters targeted an armoured personnel carrier with a guided missile. The vehicle caught fire and soldiers inside were killed and wounded, it said, without providing evidence.
The Iran-aligned group also said it fired rockets towards the city of Haifa in northern Israel. The Israeli army said most of the projectiles were intercepted.
Sirens were also activated in central Israel’s Sharon and Wadi Ara areas on Monday. A military statement said all of the rockets were launched from Lebanon and were shot down by the country’s air defences.
Separately on Monday, the Israeli military also claimed it killed Muhammad Kamal Naim, the commander of the anti-tank system of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in an air strike in Nabatieh,…