The Israeli military has intensified its strikes in southern Lebanon in recent days.
They have happened in places near the strip of territory that is occupied by Israeli troops, and large numbers of residents have again been fleeing those areas.
The latest attacks targeted Kfar Roummane, in Nabatieh district, which is only a few hundred metres from what the Israeli military calls its «security zone».
The first air strike destroyed a three-storey residential building near the town’s Shuyuiya roundabout shortly after midnight, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
The Lebanese health ministry said that in addition to the eight people killed, 11 were injured, including four children, two women, and a paramedic from the Islamic Health Association, which is an emergency service linked to Hezbollah.
The second strike hit a vehicle carrying paramedics from the Islamic Risala Scout Association, killing one of them and injuring two others, according to the ministry. The Risala Scouts is an emergency service affiliated with the Amal movement, a Shia group allied to Hezbollah.
An initial report from the NNA said 11 people were killed in the two strikes.
The health ministry said the death toll «serves as further irrefutable evidence of the grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli occupation, targeting medics and children».
A resident of Kfar Roummane, Sara Moallaem, 35, told the BBC that she had been asleep with her five children in their rental home when she heard the explosions.
She immediately grabbed her children and moved them into the home’s «safe room» while they waited for the booms and the sirens to stop.
Some of those killed in the strikes were distant relatives of Sara’s husband. She insisted they were civilians with no affiliation to Hezbollah.
Sara said she was planning to move her family to the coastal city of Sidon for their safety.
«During the day, it is almost normal, [with] people going back and forth. But as it comes near the night, things escalate, and now my children are afraid and I am packing now for the sixth or seventh time. It is terrible,» she explained.
«Now that they are targeting civilians, I don’t want to weep for my children.»
