Lebanon says three killed in Israeli strike near Sidon city

People walk past a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Lebanon’s health ministry said three people were killed in an Israeli strike Sunday near the southern city of Sidon, as state media reported the recovery of five bodies from the flashpoint southern town of Khiam.

The health ministry said a strike on Haret Saida, a densely populated neighbourhood near Sidon, killed three people and wounded nine others more than a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In the nearby town of Ghaziyeh, south of Sidon, an Israeli raid hit a building, according to the official National News Agency (NNA). An AFP correspondent said a child was rescued alive from beneath the rubble. The health ministry did not provide a death toll.

Further south, the Lebanese Red Cross recovered five out of 21 bodies that have been trapped under the rubble in the town of Khiam for around one week, according to NNA.

Emergency teams had been previously unable to access the flashpoint town, some six kilometres from the border, where Hezbollah says it battling Israeli ground forces.

The remaining corpses will be recovered on Monday, NNA said.

It the southern town of Tebnine, Israeli strikes hit near a governmental hospital, causing significant damage to the facility, according to Tebnine mayor Nabil Fawaz.

Fawaz told AFP that the hospital may be out of service as a result of the damage, but an official decision has yet to be taken.

Israeli strikes also hit near the Baalbek governmental hospital, in the country’s east, the hospital director said in a statement carried by NNA.

“The damage to the hospital is minor and the shattered glass will be replaced within 24 hours,” Abbas Shukr was quoted as saying.

“There is no obstruction to our work, and we assure you that we are still fully prepared.”

The raids on Baalbek followed an Israeli evacuation warning for the region, where Hezbollah holds sway.

NNA reported several raids on Baalbek city and its surroundings, including one that destroyed a restaurant only a few metres (yards) away from the city’s public hospital.

Abu Toufiq, a juice vendor in the area, said he fled after Israel issued the warning.

“When I came back, I found everything destroyed,” he told AFP, referring to his small shop near the restaurant.

Israel escalated its air raids on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley from September 23, after a year of cross-border fire. A week later it sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.

The war has killed more than 1,930 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real toll may be higher due to gaps in the data.