Deaths surge as Israel raids more on south Lebanon

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) — Israeli artillery shelling and airstrikes have killed more people in southern Lebanon since the early hours on Tuesday morning, said Lebanese military sources.
The anonymous military sources told Xinhua that the heavy Israeli artillery continued from last night until this morning, when about 150 shells were fired at more than 30 towns and villages in the border area of southern Lebanon.
Israeli drones and warplanes also carried out 15 raids on 12 towns and villages in south Lebanon at dawn on Tuesday, with intensive drone activities recorded across eastern and southern Lebanon.
“This morning, intensive movements of Israeli armored forces were monitored along the borderline,” said the sources.
On early Tuesday, an Israeli raid killed six people in the house of Hassan Maqdah, the son of Munir Maqdah who heads the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian group Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, according to Lebanese military sources.
Hezbollah forces in Lebanon fired rockets at Tel Aviv and other central cities on Tuesday morning, moderately injuring one man, following Israel’s ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
The rockets triggered sirens across central Israel and several settlements in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli military stated that “a number of projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, some of which were intercepted.”
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service reported that a 54-year-old bus driver was hit by shrapnel, sustaining moderate injuries.
The rocket attack occurred shortly after the Israeli military warned of the planned attacks in the area and urged civilians in southern Lebanon to stay north of the Litani River.
Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has been conducting an unprecedented, intensive air attack on Lebanon, dubbed “Arrows of the North,” in a dangerous escalation with Hezbollah.
Since Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border amid fears of a broader conflict as the war between Hamas and Israel continues in the Gaza Strip. ■