Excavators sifted through the debris, loading trucks with remnants of destroyed homes.

Residents cleared shattered glass and plaster from gaping walls. The airstrikes hit two residential buildings opposite Sayyed Shohada complex.

Local resident Abdullah Habli called the attack “a massacre against civilians.”

“This building they bombed had no one in it. It housed poor, struggling people. This street is an ordinary residential street with ordinary, civilian residents. There are no weapons here,” Habli added.

Before the strikes, Israel had warned 16 southern villages to evacuate north of the Awwali River — but Sidon received no such warning.

“I haven’t seen any military activity here at all," said Mahmoud Al Ghoul, displaced from Mays al-Jabal in the Marjeyoun province.

“Israel always claims Hezbollah fighters or weapons are in the area. But many of the areas it strikes have no Hezbollah, no Amal movement, or any other party,” said Ali Al-Amin, who had been displaced from Tyre, another Lebanese city.

Meanwhile, the main Damascus-Beirut highway reopened after the Lebanese Army cordoned it off following apparent Israeli strikes on two vehicles along the route, Lebanon's Civil Defense said.

In a joint statement, the municipalities of Kahala and Aaraya blamed “the use of international roads and civilian vehicles for the movement of gunmen and the transfer of weapons and ammunition.” The statement said it risks civilian lives and property along the route, and urged the Lebanese Army to intervene.

Along the same highway, another vehicle was struck in the Qmatieh town in the Aley province. Details of the target remain unclear.

The commander of the Lebanese Civil Defense’s southern district fire and rescue unit, Saad Al Ahmar, told The Associated Press that his team participated in extinguishing fires in the areas of both strikes. He said the road has now been reopened.

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