Beirut, Sep 25 : At least 25 people were killed and six others injured in an Israeli airstrike on houses in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese military and medical sources.

A Red Cross source told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday that 15 of the victims were Lebanese civilians, while the other 10 were Syrians.

The military sources, who spoke anonymously, said that an Israeli warplane fired four air-to-ground missiles at dawn on several houses in the centre of the village of Nmairiyeh.

The Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence teams transferred the casualties to hospitals in the city of Nabatieh, the sources said.

"Civil defence personnel equipped with bulldozers and cranes spent most of the day removing the rubble of the demolished houses and pulling the bodies from the rubble, most of which appeared disfigured," they said.

According to military sources, Israeli warplanes and drones carried out 15 raids on villages and towns in southern Lebanon and 11 raids on towns and villages in eastern Lebanon.

Hezbollah's media relations department issued a statement warning that "the Zionist enemy is dropping leaflets with a barcode in the Bekaa region and may send them elsewhere."

The statement advised, "Please do not open or share the barcode; destroy it immediately as it is hazardous. It can extract all your information and poses a threat to your safety."

The latest airstrike took place as Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, vowed earlier in the day to intensify Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.

"We should not give Hezbollah a rest" and "should keep on working with full force," Halevi said in a statement.

Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border, raising concerns of a broader conflict as the war between Hamas and Israel continues in the Gaza Strip.



/IANS