Lebanon media says 3 children among 5 dead in Israeli strikes

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese official media said separate Israeli strikes on Tuesday in south Lebanon killed five people including three Syrian children, with Hizbollah announcing rocket fire at Israel in retaliation.

"Three Syrian children" were killed "in an enemy raid that targeted farmland in the village of Umm Toot", the National News Agency (NNA) said.

It also said an "enemy" drone strike had targeted a motorcycle on the Kfar Tebnit road elsewhere in south Lebanon, killing two Syrians.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP that the two Syrians were "civilians" who worked nearby and had been swimming in the area.

The NNA said that "eyewitnesses reported that the motorbike was carrying two people and that when a number of citizens tried to approach the bike... it was subjected to a second strike".

Hizbollah said it launched rounds of “Katyusha rockets” at northern Israel in response to the Israeli strikes.

The group in separate statements mentioned both “the death of two civilians” in Kfar Tebnit and “the horrible massacre in Umm Toot village” as reasons for the retaliatory fire.

The United Nations children’s agency said that “more children are at risk as long as the violence continues.”

“The killing of three more children by an airstrike today as they were reportedly playing in front of their home in south Lebanon is horrific,” UNICEF said on social media platform X.

Hizbollah has traded almost daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said that “approximately 40 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, some of which were intercepted. No injuries were reported”.

The statement also said the air force “struck a launcher in the area of Blat that was identified firing projectiles towards the Kiryat Shmona area” as well as “a Hizbollah terrorist cell” in the Yarin area, which is close to Umm Toot.

A further 10 projectiles were identified late Tuesday, the military said, while the air force launched strikes against parts of south Lebanon where it said there were Hizbollah sites.

Sirens warning of incoming fire blared overnight in northern Israel, the military said, with no reports of casualties.

In Lebanon, the cross-border violence since October has killed 511 people, mostly fighters but also including at least 104 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 17 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, according to authorities.

The violence, largely restricted to the border area, has raised fears of all-out conflict between the foes, who last went to war in the summer of 2006.