Lebanon Says 8 Killed in Israel Strike Near Coastal City of Sidon

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Haret Saida neighborhood, Sidon, Lebanon, 27 October 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Haret Saida neighborhood, Sidon, Lebanon, 27 October 2024. (EPA)
TT

Lebanon Says 8 Killed in Israel Strike Near Coastal City of Sidon

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Haret Saida neighborhood, Sidon, Lebanon, 27 October 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Haret Saida neighborhood, Sidon, Lebanon, 27 October 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon's health ministry said at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded Sunday in an Israeli strike near the southern city of Sidon, where an AFP correspondent said a building was targeted.

The strike hit a densely-populated area in a Sidon suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.

It was the first strike there since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted last month.

"The Israeli enemy's raid on Haret Saida resulted in a... toll of eight killed," the health ministry said, revising an earlier toll of two dead.

The official National News Agency said a child was among the victims.

An AFP correspondent said one apartment was destroyed in the strike on a three-storey residential complex.

Surrounding shops and buildings were also damaged, the correspondent said, as paramedics rushed to the site of the attack to search for survivors.

The Israeli army had issued an evacuation warning for several areas in south Lebanon on Sunday, but Haret Saida was not listed among the areas to be targeted.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately and move north of the Awali river.

Elsewhere in the south, a strike on Zawtar al-Sharkiya killed three people and a Saturday bombing of Marjeyoun killed five, it said.

Israel said four of its soldiers were killed in south Lebanon fighting.

Hezbollah also said it had fired a large missile salvo at the Zevulon military industries facility north of Haifa in northern Israel. Hezbollah rockets hit a house and cars and rescue crews responded to put out the fire.

One woman was seriously injured, according to Israel's ambulance service.

The war since September 23 has left at least 1,615 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of nationwide health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.

At least 1.3 million people have been displaced, more than 800,000 of them within Lebanon's borders, according to the UN's migration agency.

More than half a million people have crossed into Syria, according to Lebanese authorities, most of them Syrians.



Lebanon Death Toll from War Rises to 217 as Israel Presses Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
TT

Lebanon Death Toll from War Rises to 217 as Israel Presses Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli air strikes battered Lebanon on Friday, sending the death toll since Monday up to at least 217, according to Lebanese authorities, as the premier warned "a humanitarian disaster is looming". 

The Israeli military renewed its strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs Friday afternoon, Lebanese state media reported, following night raids that left heavy damage in the area after residents fled en masse in response to Israeli evacuation warnings. 

Israel says it has killed "over 70" members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. 

A live broadcast by AFP showed plumes of smoke rising above buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, a typically densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway. 

Speaking to foreign ambassadors Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said "the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented". 

According to Lebanese authorities, at least 217 people have been killed and 798 wounded since Israel's expanded attacks on Monday, with more than 95,000 people displaced. 

"Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose," Salam said. 

"Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them," he added. 

On Monday, the Lebanese government banned Hezbollah's military activities after it launched rockets on Israel to "avenge" Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, pulling Lebanon into the Middle East war. 

On Friday, in a message posted in Hebrew on the group's Telegram channels, Hezbollah told Israelis to evacuate all localities "located within 5 kilometers of the border". 

Israel has continued to strike dozens of areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including Sidon, where five people were killed according to Lebanon's health ministry. 

An AFP photographer at the scene saw extensive damage in the targeted apartment and shattered glass on the street. 

Rescue workers meanwhile recovered a body from under the rubble and collected body parts scattered around the area. 

Further south in Tyre, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the NNA reported a major strike. 

- Southern suburbs - 

The Israeli military announced Friday that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the past four days. 

It added that Hezbollah had fired around 70 rockets toward Israel since midnight, and that the Lebanese group had launched coordinated attacks with Iran on Thursday. 

Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighborhood of Beirut's suburbs Friday, while the buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed. 

After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area, whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000. 

Mohammad, 39, a resident of the southern suburbs, fled with his family when the bombing began on Monday. 

Returning on Thursday to check on his home and collect belongings just minutes before the Israeli evacuation warning, he said he "went down and found total chaos". 

Fatima al-Masri, 45, also escaped the southern suburbs and has been sheltering in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square for four days. 

"We want to eat and drink... we want to go to the bathroom," she said, adding that she "came here because the schools are full". 

- Strikes on south - 

Since Monday, Israel has ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometers of southern Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border. 

The Israeli army chief on Thursday said he ordered forces deployed in southern Lebanon to expand their control inside south Lebanon. 

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed on Friday new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa. 

Hezbollah also announced at dawn on Friday that it had targeted a cluster of Israeli vehicles advancing toward the town of Khiam, about six kilometers from the border, and "forced them to retreat". 


Norway Aid Group Says Israeli Strikes Have Displaced 300,000 in Lebanon

Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
TT

Norway Aid Group Says Israeli Strikes Have Displaced 300,000 in Lebanon

Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)

Aid agency the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Friday that 300,000 people in Lebanon had been forced to flee after Israel launched a wave of evacuation orders and airstrikes.

The aid agency also questioned the legality of the mass-evacuation orders Israel had issued there.

The orders cover hundreds of villages in South Lebanon, as well as villages in the Bekaa region and the southern suburbs of Beirut, constituting a large area of Lebanese territory.

It added that the number of people who might be displaced could potentially exceed one million.

"Israel's evacuation orders demanding civilians leave multiple areas of Lebanon raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law, which prohibits the forcible transfer of civilian populations," the NRC said.

"These orders do not appear to have military justification and provide no guarantee of safe passage or support for those fleeing and compound the suffering of hundreds of thousands of families."

The organization insisted that civilians be protected, including those who choose to remain or are not able to relocate.

Lebanon's health ministry said Friday at least 217 people had been killed and 798 wounded since the start of a new war between Israel and Hezbollah on Monday.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned Friday that "a humanitarian disaster is looming" due to mass displacement.


Iraq's Kurdish Authorities Say 'Attack' Shuts US-run Oil Field

A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
TT

Iraq's Kurdish Authorities Say 'Attack' Shuts US-run Oil Field

A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo

Iraqi Kurdish authorities said on Friday that oil production at an oil field operated by US firm HKN Energy has been halted following an attack.

A security source told AFP the attack was carried out with two drones the previous day.

The natural resources ministry in the northern Kurdistan region said in a statement "yesterday, an outlaw group in Iraq launched a terrorist attack on the HKN oil field in the Sarsang area" in Dohuk province, damaging the field and "halting production".

The autonomous Kurdistan region has been pulled into the war engulfing the Middle East, suffering mostly from drone attacks on US bases and interests there.

Several Iran-backed armed groups -- known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq -- claim daily drone attacks on US bases.

Drones have repeatedly been intercepted over Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US-led coalition troops and a major US consulate complex.

On Tuesday, a source at an oil company in Kurdistan told AFP that most foreign oil companies had temporarily halted production as a precautionary measure.