Israeli Strike Kills Five in Southern Lebanon

At least five people were killed, four from the same family, and nine wounded in an Israeli strike on a house in southern Lebanon, the country's official National News Agency reported.

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October between Israel and the Gaza militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.

The attack against a house in the Khirbet Selm area killed a family of four, a couple and their two children and one other person whose mother was also pregnant.

The strike demolished the house, wounding at least nine others who lived nearby, it said.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October at least 312 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, and 56 civilians have been killed in Lebanon.

The fighting is mainly along border regions but fears have grown of a broader conflict in Lebanon.

Last Tuesday, a Lebanese couple and their son were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern border village of Hula.

Deadly fighting raged on in Gaza, with no truce in sight on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and a dire humanitarian crisis gripping the besieged Palestinian territory.

As famine looms in parts of besieged Gaza, US, Jordanian and other planes have also airdropped food aid there, but UN agencies warn this falls far short of the needs of its 2.4 million people.

The war, started by the October 7 attack on Israel, has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where vast swathes have been reduced to a bombed-out wasteland.

Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have aimed for a six-week truce and the release of many of the about 100 hostages Hamas is still holding in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, with no result so far.