The Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate after the death toll from two Israeli airstrikes climbed to 10 Thursday, making it the deadliest attack in monthslong cross-border skirmishes.
The strikes hit the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, just hours after projectiles allegedly from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier.
In Nabatiyeh, the strike knocked down part of a building, killing seven members of the same family, including a child, the state-run National News Agency said.
A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble. Initial reports had said four people were killed.
In the village of Souaneh, a woman and her two young children were killed. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children. Three Hezbollah fighters were also killed on Wednesday.
The fire from Lebanon earlier Wednesday struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding eight people.
The fatalities marked a significant escalation in more than four months of daily cross-border exchanges triggered by the Oct. 7 outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza.
The war was triggered by a surprise incursion into southern Israel by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.
Government institutions, schools and the Lebanese University remained closed on Thursday in protest of the airstrikes.
