At least 12 people were killed in total in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, including six Israeli soldiers and six people killed when Israeli fighter jets hit a building, according to reports from both Israel and Lebanon.
Israeli forces announced that six of their soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, while eyewitnesses reported that at least six people were killed and 15 others injured when Israeli fighter jets hit a building south of Beirut.
The soldiers were killed in a firefight with four Hezbollah members inside a building, Israeli media reported, citing an initial army investigation. According to the reports, another soldier was injured in the incident.
The Israeli military said five of the dead were between 20 and 22 years old. The Army initially did not provide information about the identity of the sixth soldier.
An Israeli army memorial page listed the total number of soldiers killed since the start of the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon as 792.
The conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah began over a year ago after rocket attacks by the Lebanese militia in support of the Gaza-based Hamas, which was hit hard by Israel after carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israeli territory in October. 2023.
Israeli air raids kill 6 south of Beirut
Images showed that several floors of the building in the Aley district where the people died were badly damaged in the pre-dawn bombing. There was no initial information on the identities of the dead, or whether they had belonged to Hezbollah.
Residents said they spent the night outside for fear of further attacks. “Nowadays you have to know who your neighbors are,” one resident told DPA, referring to members of the Hezbollah militia targeted by Israeli forces.
Hezbollah members have purchased homes in the area in recent years.
The Israeli army reported attacks on Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut. It once again called on residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate in anticipation of further attacks.
Hezbollah said IDF ground forces had withdrawn across the border from most villages in the south of the country.
UN: Nearly 14,000 pregnant women caught in conflict in Lebanon
Meanwhile, nearly 14,000 pregnant women in Lebanon have been affected by the war, according to a report published Wednesday by the UN human rights office.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that according to recent data, around 1,500 of them will give birth in the coming weeks.
Overall, the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse of women is high in Lebanon’s overcrowded shelters, the report said.
The fighting in Lebanon has displaced around 880,000 people in the country, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). Another 470,000 have fled across the border to neighboring Syria, where a civil war broke out in 2011.
OCHA has appealed to international donors for $426 million to provide essential support to those affected in Lebanon. To date, only about a quarter of this target has been raised.
