Lebanese security and medical sources reported that dozens of people were killed as Israeli warplanes fired missiles at several houses in a village at the Lebanese border. The sources estimate that some forty residents are buried under rubble of houses in Houla town. Dozens were killed an injured in different Israeli strikes.
The Qatar based Al Jazeera TV said that the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fuad Siniora, said in a pres conference that more than forty people had been killed in what he described as a “ deliberate massacre carried by the Israeli army”.
Lebanese sources reported on Monday that missiles fired by an Israeli air craft destroyed a house where at least 17 civilians were hiding in the Hamameer district, and that troops carried additional six strikes that hit four more nearby houses where some forty other people were staying.
The shelling came after the Israeli soldiers engaged in gun battles with Hezbollah fighters close to the border village earlier on Monday, Al Jazeera added.
Also, the Arabs48 news website reported that residents of the village said that at least 70 civilians were present in the shelled houses while rescue teams and ambulances are unable to reach the area since Israel shelled the main roads leading to it.
The shelled houses also caught fire but civil defense teams are also unable to reach them.
The Al Manar TV, that belongs to Hezbollah, reported that Hezbollah fighters exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers in different areas along the border, especially after the soldiers attempted to advance into villages in southern Lebanon.
One Israeli soldier was killed, and four were injured in the clashes. In Bint Jbeil town, four Israeli soldiers were injured, and five Hezbollah gunmen were killed, Israeli sources reported.
Moreover, some 30 Israeli soldiers landed by helicopter over a Lebanese hill overlooking Ras Al Baida, south of Tyre, and exchanged fire with Hezbollah gunmen, Lebanese security officials reported.
At least five Lebanese residents, including a soldier, were killed in the attack. Eight Israeli soldiers were injured, two seriously.
Moreover, a Lebanese police source reported that seven family members were killed after the Israeli air force shelled a house in the village of Ghazzaniyeh in the south of Lebanon.
Four more Lebanese residents were killed, and at least 13 were injured in an Israeli air strikes in Kfar Tibneet village, two more civilians died in a strike in the nearby Harouf village and one was killed in an Israeli bombardment struck his building in Ghaziye, close to Sidon, Al Jazeera said.
Al Jazeera added that the port city of Tyre has been completely cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardments.
Soldiers also shelled and destroyed a makeshift bridge in Qasimiya, north of Tyre, and the road leading out of the city to the south.
In a further attack, soldiers shelled the road leading to the Masnaa border post, the post was repeatedly targeted by the army in several previous attacks.
The Israeli air force also shelled the road between Baalbek and Rayak; the road links Baalbek region with Zahle in the center of Lebanon.
Two other raids hit the Aita al-Fukhar road linking villages in the Biqaa Valley with Syria, and carried four raids on hills east of Al Biqaa’, Al Jazeera added.
