Paramedics with the Lebanese Red Cross unearth a body from the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the northern Lebanese village of Aito. AFP
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was. The strike hit a small apartment building in the village of Aito, which is part of the country's Christian heartland in the north and far from the Hezbollah resistance group's main areas of influence in the south and east.
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 severely wounded seven others in the deadliest strike by the resistance group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the army base and soldiers injured in the attack, vowing that “we will continue to strike Hezbollah without compassion in every part of Lebanon, including in Beirut.”
Sixty-one people were wounded in Sunday's attack. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel over the past year, killing more than 60 people, moslty in retaliation, although Israel says most have been intercepted by its air defence systems or hit open areas.
In Lebanon, some 2,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since last October, according to the country's Health Ministry. More than three-quarters of the deaths occurred in the past month.
Hezbollah has vowed to keep up its attacks on Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
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