Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said the fatalities, most of them women and children, occurred on Thursday after an Israeli raid on a three-story building housing Syrian refugees in the town of Yunin near the city of Baalbek in northern Bekaa Valley.
The agency quoted Ali Kassas, mayor of Yunin, as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled from under the rubble, adding that four Syrians and four Lebanese were also wounded.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it recovered nine bodies, while others were recovered by the Hezbollah resistance group’s paramedic service and the Lebanese Civil Defense.
The NNA added that 11 Lebanese people were also killed and nine others wounded in the town of Karak in the Zahle district in Bekaa.
It was one of the deadliest single strikes by Israel in Lebanon since the exchange of fire between the regime and Hezbollah over the past months.
Earlier in the day, Israeli warplanes also launched a series of intensive raids on the southern Lebanese cities of Tyre, Dibba, Bidayas and Bazourieh, leaving a number of casualties.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said in a statement, "The Israeli enemy's attacks today on the town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon led to the martyrdom of three people."
Hezbollah announced in separate statements that it had carried out retaliatory strikes by targeting Rafael's military industrial complexes in the Zovulon area north of the city of Haifa with salvos of rockets. The Lebanese resistance group also bombarded the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Motzkin with barrages of missiles.
The Israeli military claimed on Thursday it had hit around 75 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight, including ammunition depots of the Lebanese resistance group.
The latest strikes come as the United States, France and several Western and Arab allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel while also expressing support for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip following intense discussions at the United Nations on Wednesday.
MNA/Press TV
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