Israeli forces launch devastating bombardment on northern Lebanon village, killing 14: Mayor

Israel attacked the town of Ain Yaaqoub in the very north of Lebanon from the air, resulting in at least 14 deaths and 15 injuries.

On Monday, an Israeli missile hit a building where 30 people were living, some of them Syrian refugees. It was the northernmost place in Lebanon that Israeli forces had attacked since the fighting started in October 2023.

Initially, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Lebanon reported eight fatalities and 14 injuries. Later, Ain Yaaqoub’s Mayor Majed Drbes changed that number to 14 and 15, respectively.

A local official named Rony al-Hage told the AFP news agency that people who were forced to leave their homes lived in the two-story house.

“Rescue and clean-up efforts are still going on,” al-Hage said.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reported from Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, that people who had to leave their homes in other parts of Lebanon and Syria had fled to Ain Yaaqoub, which is about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the border with Syria.

“That area has been a safe haven for years for a lot of Syrian refugees,” Stratford said.

“We also know that it is a place where Lebanese people who have been forced to leave their homes in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and parts of the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country are looking for safety,” he said.

He said, “It’s interesting that this area isn’t a center for Hezbollah, and this is the second day in a row that we’ve seen an attack in this kind of area.”

When asked about the Ain Yaaqoub attack, Israel’s military said that it had targeted a “military structure with a terrorist inside” and that it had taken steps to protect civilians as much as possible, denying reports of many deaths.

Hezbollah had also fired about 165 rockets into the north of Israel, the Israeli military said on Monday.

A one-year-old child was among the six people hurt in the attacks in northern Israel, according to the country’s Magen David Adom rescue service.

Israel’s most important newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said on Monday that Israel and Lebanon had sent each other drafts of a planned ceasefire through US envoy Amos Hochstein. This showed that talks to reach an agreement were moving forward.

A representative from Hezbollah also said that diplomatic attempts to end the fighting had stepped up but that neither the Lebanese group nor the government had received any new proposals.

At a Monday night TV news conference, Mohammad Afif, who is in charge of Hezbollah’s media office, said, “There is a lot of movement between Washington, Moscow, Tehran, and a number of capitals.”

“I believe we are still exploring the possibilities by generating preliminary concepts and initiating proactive conversations.” As of now, there is nothing concrete.”