22, including 8 children, killed in Wednesday's strikes
Lebanon's health ministry said 22 people including eight children were killed on Wednesday as Israel intensified strikes on the country.
Israeli airstrikes struck seven vehicles in Lebanon — three of them on the main highway just south of Beirut — killing 12 people including a woman and her two children.
Ten more people were killed in Israeli strikes in the country's south, bringing the day's toll to at least 22 dead.
The health ministry said six people "including three children and two women" were killed in the town of Arab Salim, while another child was killed in a strike on Harouf and three more people "including two children" were killed in Roumin, all in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, hours after telling residents of six southern villages to evacuate.
Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbors that have been in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.
The United Nations has also accused Hezbollah of drone strikes near its peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, and Secretary-General António Guterres' message to both sides is that they must observe the ceasefire and stop all attacks, U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Wednesday it is increasingly concerned about fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near its positions, putting peacekeepers at risk, including with explosions of drones in and around U.N. bases.
UNIFIL said that a presumed Hezbollah drone detonated inside its headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura on Tuesday, following earlier presumed Hezbollah drone detonations on Monday and Tuesday. No one was injured, but some buildings were damaged.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
The Health Ministry said Wednesday that since the war began, 2,896 have been killed and 8,824 wounded.
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press
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