Massive Israeli attack on Lebanese villages, 9 killed

International Desk: On Wednesday, Israel launched a massive attack on the villages of southern Lebanon. Nine civilians including four children were killed. Israel said the attack was in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks that killed soldiers.

Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire on the Israel-Lebanon border for more than four months, after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets across the disputed border in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, a Reuters report said on Thursday (Feb 15).

Israeli forces started invading Gaza from October last year. More than 28,000 people have been killed and 67,000 injured in Gaza since the start of the four-month-long campaign. A few days after the start of the invasion of the Israeli forces in Gaza, Hezbollah began to attack the Lebanese-Israeli border area with rockets and drones. In response, the Israeli army continued to counterattack. Reuters reports that a woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli attack in the village of Al-Sawana in Lebanon.

Two more children, three women and a man were killed in the attack on a building in Nabatih, said Hassan Wazni, a hospital director, and three other security sources. Seven others went to hospital for treatment after the Israeli strike, Wozni told Reuters. Four Hezbollah fighters were also killed in separate attacks, security sources said.

Although Hezbollah did not announce the operation, the head of the organization's executive council said Wednesday that Israel's attack on Lebanese territory "will be answered." A female Israeli soldier was killed and eight others were hospitalized in a rocket attack from Lebanon on Wednesday morning, an Israeli government spokesman said.