Lebanon state media says Israel struck village in far north

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese state-run media said Israel struck a house in the northern Akkar region on Monday, one of the farthest attacks from the border in its war against Hizbollah militants.

Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign mainly targeting Hizbollah strongholds in Lebanon's east, south and south Beirut, rarely targeting the country's north.

"An enemy strike targeted a house in the village of Ain Yaacoub," some 150 kilometres from Israel, said Lebanon's official National News Agency.

Local official Rony Al Hage told AFP that "displaced people lived in the two-storey house" and that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since the full-blown war erupted. After it escalated its air raids, Israel sent ground troops in against Hizbollah in south Lebanon on September 30.

"Rescue and rubble-removing operations are still ongoing," Hage said.

Residents of a nearby village heard a loud explosion and ambulance sirens.

A local Facebook page broadcast a live video feed it said was from the scene of the strike that showed a completely destroyed house, while people removed the rubble with bare hands, using their phones as flashlights.

Lebanon's health ministry earlier said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people on Monday.

The Lebanon war erupted after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hizbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. That attack triggered the ongoing Gaza war.

More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border fire began last year, according to Lebanon's health ministry, but most of the deaths have come since late September.