Five people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday evening, the official Lebanese agency Ani said, amid fears that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel would continue. The strike on a two-story building in Nabatiyeh, one of southern Lebanon’s main towns, comes as the two warring factions have resorted to bellicose rhetoric in recent days.

In mid-February, seven civilians from the same family were killed in a strike against the town of Nabatieh in retaliation for an unclaimed rocket attack from Lebanon on a military base in northern Israel. Since fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which backs the Palestinian Islamist movement, has fired daily along the border with the Israeli military, and the violence has recently picked up. intensity.

Intensification of strikes

On Wednesday, after two days of relative calm, Israel again intensified its attacks in southern Lebanon, shelling around ten border areas, Ani said. “At 10 p.m., enemy aircraft (Israeli, editor’s note) launched a violent air attack on a building in the city of Nabatieh, completely destroying it.”Ani said five people near the building were injured and taken to hospital.

Ani also recorded 14 minor injuries. “Suffocation”. Clouds of smoke and dust blanketed the area as residents of nearby damaged homes called for help, the agency said. Hezbollah said it carried out six strikes against Israeli military positions along the border on Wednesday.

According to an AFP tally, more than eight months of violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army have killed at least 481 people in Lebanon, including the majority of Hezbollah fighters and 94 civilians. Israel said at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed on the Israeli side. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned on Wednesday that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip could extend into Lebanon. “Potentially Apocalyptic”.