At least killed 14 in Israeli strike on Lebanon’s Akkar region

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Israel’s military struck a village in Lebanon’s northernmost Akkar region on Monday, killing at least 14 people in one of its farthest attacks from the Israeli border since the war began.
The strike hit a building in the village of Ain Yaacoub that was home to at least 30 people, including refugees from Syria, according to the local mayor. An initial toll from state-run media said eight people were killed and at least 14 wounded. Several were still trapped under the rubble, Mayor Majed Drbes told Reuters.
It flattened the two-storey residential building, with locals searching through the rubble for survivors with phone flashlights. “There is no one here besides women and children,” a man said in a video circulating on social media of the aftermath of the strike.
The remote village, home to mostly Sunni Muslims and Orthodox Christians, is far from areas associated with Hezbollah, which Israel has claimed is its main target in Lebanon.
A child was killed in an Israeli strike on the Akkar village of Akroum earlier this month, which destroyed a bridge linking the rugged area, close to Syria, with other parts of Lebanon.
Cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel’s military began last October, escalating into a full-blown Israeli attack and ground invasion in September. Israel’s strikes have destroyed large swathes of civilian areas, killing more than 3,240 people and displacing at least 1.4 million – including hundreds of thousands of people who have fled into neighbouring Syria.
Israel’s new Defence Minister, Israel Katz, on Monday said there will be no end to the fighting with Hezbollah until the objectives of the war with the Iran-backed group are met. “There will be no ceasefire and there will be no respite [for Hezbollah] until the goals of the war are achieved,” he told the Israeli military’s general staff forum in his first meeting with the group.
Civil defence teams have been regularly targeted in Israeli air strikes, hampering efforts to rescue the victims of attacks, which are often carried out with little to no warning. When displacement warnings have been issued, civilians are often told in the middle of the night or given only minutes to leave before the bombing begins.
The Akkar attack came hours after seven people were killed in an Israeli air strike near the southern city of Sidon, followed by another that killed at least three people in the eastern Bekaa valley.
Israel has pledged to expand its ground invasion of southern Lebanon in the coming weeks, according to local media reports, with thousands more reserve troops to be called up to join the Northern Command. At least four divisions are already operating on the ground.