Israeli attack on town in Lebanon’s far north kills 14 people: Mayor

Israeli missile destroys residence in far northern Lebanese town where refugees and displaced people had fled for safety

At least 14 people have been reported killed and 15 others injured following an Israeli air strike on the town of Ain Yaaqoub in the far north of Lebanon.

The Israeli missile that hit a building on Monday where 30 people were residing, including Syrian refugees, marked the northernmost point in Lebanon attacked so far by Israeli forces since fighting began in October 2023.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) initially said eight people were killed and 14 others were injured, which Ain Yaaqoub’s Mayor Majed Drbes later revised to 14 and 15, respectively.

“Displaced people lived in the two-storey house,” Rony al-Hage, a local official, told the AFP news agency.

“Rescue and rubble-removing operations are still ongoing,” al-Hage said.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli raid on Saksakiyeh in Sidon District in southern Lebanon killed at least seven people and injured seven more, according to the MoPH, which also reported that a total of 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks and 56 injured across the country on Sunday.

To date, 3,243 people have now been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon and 14,134 injured since October 2023.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the Lebanese capital Beirut, said Syrian refugees and displaced people from other parts of Lebanon had fled to Ain Yaaqoub, about 10km (6.2 miles) from the Syrian border.

“There are so many Syrian refugees in that area who have been sheltering there for years,” Stratford said.

“We also understand it is an area that is sheltering Lebanese people who have been forced to flee their homes from southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and areas in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country amid Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign,” he said.

“What’s interesting is that this area is not a Hezbollah stronghold and it is the second consecutive day that we have seen a strike in such an area,” he added.

Commenting on the Ain Yaaqoub attack, Israel’s military said its forces targeted a “military structure with a terrorist inside” and had taken measures to minimise civilian harm, claiming that reports of numerous casualties were exaggerated.

The Israeli military also reported on Monday that Hezbollah had fired about 165 rockets into the north of Israel.

According to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, a total of six people were injured as a result of the attacks, including a one-year-old child, in northern Israel.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s leading newspaper, reported on Monday that Israel and Lebanon had exchanged drafts of a proposed ceasefire through United States envoy Amos Hochstein, which signalled progress in efforts to reach an agreement.

A Hezbollah official also acknowledged that diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire had intensified, but said neither the Lebanese group nor the government had received any new proposal.

“There is a great movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals,” Mohammad Afif, the head of Hezbollah’s media office, said in a televised news conference on Monday.

“I believe that we are still in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas and proactive discussions, but so far, there is nothing actual yet.”

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Al Jazeera and news agencies