24 People Killed in Israeli Attack on Ain Deleb, Lebanon’s Health Ministry Says

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Sunday at least 24 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit two buildings in the country’s south.

The consecutive strikes Sunday on Ain all-Delb, east of Sidon, were caught on camera by neighbors in the area. The Health Ministry said the strikes also injured at least 29 people.

In video verified by The Associated Press, one strike caused a huge plume of smoke. The second one hit an adjacent building, causing to sway and then collapse.

Separately, the Health Ministry said Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47.

Israel struck more targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing Hezbollah with new attacks after killing the Iran-backed group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and a string of its other top commanders in an escalating military campaign.

The attacks have dealt a stunning succession of blows to Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fire, killing much of its leadership and revealing gaping security holes. Israel's defense minister is now discussing widening the offensive.

Following the death of Nasrallah - killed in a massive airstrike in Beirut on Friday - Hezbollah fired new fusillades of rockets into Israel, while Iran said his death would be avenged.

Israel's intensifying bombardment has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the United States, Israel's closest ally, which said on Sunday it has authorized its military to reinforce in the region while also urging a diplomatic resolution.

Nasrallah had not only made Hezbollah into a powerful domestic force in Lebanon during his 32 years as leader, but helped turn it into the linchpin of Iran's network of allied groups in the Arab world.

Nasrallah's body was recovered intact from the site of Friday's strike, a medical source and a security source told Reuters on Sunday. Hezbollah has not yet said when his funeral will be held.

Supporters of the group and other Lebanese who hailed its role fighting Israel, which occupied south Lebanon for years, mourned him on Sunday.

"We lost the leader who gave us all the strength and faith that we, this small country that we love, could turn it into a paradise," said Lebanese Christian woman Sophia Blanche Rouillard, carrying a black flag to work in Beirut.

The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, their latest round of warfare in four decades of on-off conflict, has been waged in parallel with Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas since the Iran-backed Palestinian group's attack on Israel last Oct. 7.

Israel's stated goal is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow thousands of displaced residents to return, but its strikes have also had a devastating impact on civilians in Lebanon.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said a million people - a fifth of the population - had fled their homes.

The Health Ministry said 14 medics had been killed in airstrikes over the past two days.

In Beirut, some displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut's waterfront. On Sunday morning, families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and made tea for themselves.

"You won't be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however much you bomb, however much you displace people - we will stay here. We won't leave. This is our country and we're staying," said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area.

The UN World Food Program began an emergency operation to provide food for those affected by the conflict.

MILITARY ACTION

On Sunday Israel's military said the air force had struck dozens of targets including launchers and weapons stores while its navy said it had intercepted eight projectiles coming from the direction of Lebanon and one from the Red Sea.

More blasts rocked Beirut and drones could be heard flying over all parts of the Lebanese capital overnight and throughout the day on Sunday.

Nasrallah's death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.

Israeli airstrikes across Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, and in Beirut's southern suburbs have meanwhile killed a string of the group's other most senior commanders.

On Sunday Israel said it had killed Nabil Qaouq, a prominent Hezbollah leader. Hezbollah confirmed his death.

ESCALATION RISKS

Concerns have grown about the prospect of a wider conflict. Israel has mobilized reserve brigades and says it is ready for all options, including a ground operation.

Hezbollah has said it will cease fire only when Israel's offensive in Gaza ends. Hamas and other Hezbollah allies issued statements mourning his death.

Diplomatic efforts have shown little sign of progress. Lebanon's caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makary said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that efforts for a ceasefire were still underway.

The US, which has praised the killing of Nasrallah as a measure of justice for victims of Hezbollah attacks, on Sunday urged a peaceful resolution.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran would not help residents of northern Israel return to their homes.

"We believe that a diplomatic path is the right course," he said.

In Iran, which helped create Hezbollah in the early 1980s, senior figures mourned the death of a senior Revolutionary Guards member killed alongside Nasrallah, and Tehran called for a UN Security Council meeting on Israel's actions.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah's killing, sources told Reuters.

Hezbollah's arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah's Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.

War has left Gaza littered with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, with children drawn to metal casings maimed or even killed when they try to pick them up, a demining expert said.

Nicholas Orr, a former UK military deminer, told AFP after a mission to the war-battered Palestinian territory that "we're losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment."

According to Orr, most of the casualties are children out of school desperate for something to do, searching through the rubble of bombed-out buildings sometimes for lack of better playthings.

"They're bored, they're running around, they find something curious, they play with it, and that's the end," he said.

Among the victims was 15-year-old Ahmed Azzam, who lost his leg to an explosive left in the rubble as he returned to his home in the southern city of Rafah after months of displacement.

"We were inspecting the remains of our home and there was a suspicious object in the rubble," Azzam told AFP.

"I didn't know it was explosive, but suddenly it detonated," he said, causing "severe wounds to both my legs, which led to the amputation of one of them."

He was one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning home during a truce that brought short-lived calm to Gaza after more than 15 months of war, before Israel resumed its bombardment and military operations last month.

For Azzam and other children, the return was marred by the dangers of leftover explosives.

'Attractive to kids'

Demining expert Orr, who was in Gaza for charity Handicap International, said that while no one is safe from the threat posed by unexploded munitions, children are especially vulnerable.

Some ordnance is like "gold to look at, so they're quite attractive to kids", he said.

"You pick that up and that detonates. That's you and your family gone, and the rest of your building."

Another common scenario involved people back from displacement, said Orr, giving an example of "a father of a family who's moved back to his home to reclaim his life, and finds that there's UXO in his garden".

"So he tries to help himself and help his family by moving the UXO, and there's an accident."

With fighting ongoing and humanitarian access limited, little data is available, but in January the UN Mine Action Service said that "between five and 10 percent" of weapons fired into Gaza failed to detonate.

It could take 14 years to make the coastal territory safe from unexploded bombs, the UN agency said.

Alexandra Saieh, head of advocacy for Save The Children, said unexploded ordnance is a common sight in the Gaza Strip, where her charity operates.

"When our teams go on field they see UXOs all the time. Gaza is littered with them," she said.

'Numbers game'

For children who lose limbs from blasts, "the situation is catastrophic", said Saieh, because "child amputees require specialized long-term care... that's just not available in Gaza".

In early March, just before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza. That included prosthetics that could have helped avoid long-term mobility loss, Saieh said.

Unexploded ordnance comes in various forms, Orr said. In Gaza's north, where ground battles raged for months, there are things like "mortars, grenades, and a lot of bullets".

In Rafah, where air strikes were more intense than ground combat, "it's artillery projectiles, it's airdrop projectiles", which can often weigh dozens of kilograms, he added.

Orr said he was unable to obtain permission to conduct bomb disposal in Gaza, as Israeli aerial surveillance could have mistaken him for a militant attempting to repurpose unexploded ordnance into weapons.

He also said that while awareness-raising could help Gazans manage the threat, the message doesn't always travel fast enough.

"People see each other moving it and think, 'Oh, they've done it, I can get away with it,'" Orr said, warning that it was difficult for a layperson to know which bombs might still explode, insisting it was not worth the risk.

"You're just playing against the odds, it's a numbers game."

24 People Killed in Israeli Attack on Ain Deleb, Lebanon’s Health Ministry Says