Israel intensifies attacks in southern Lebanon, killing at least four and wounding 20

At least four people were killed and 20 wounded on Sunday in a series of Israeli attacks across Lebanon's southern Nabatieh region, according to an initial toll from the Lebanese Public Health Ministry.

The ministry's emergency operations center reported two deaths and two injuries in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, eight injuries in a neighborhood of Nabatieh city, and two deaths and six injuries in Arab Salim. Four other people were wounded in Kafr Rumman. The injured included women and children.

Local sources cited by Lebanon's national news agency said the bombardments began at about 5 a.m. and hit homes and other facilities in Nabatieh and nearby areas. Several airstrikes destroyed a house near Kafr Rumman's industrial zone. In Nabatieh al-Fawqa, another strike destroyed a home and damaged part of the former Ghandour Hospital, which had been out of service for years.

The attacks also damaged a historic building in Nabatieh, regional Finance and Agriculture department offices, gardens and a motorcycle on the road between Nabatieh and Nabatieh al-Fawqa. Israeli artillery intermittently shelled areas near Tell al Dabsha and Doha Kafr Rumman.

Israel said its forces had downed one of two drones launched by Hezbollah against Israeli soldiers operating in what it calls the southern Lebanon Security Zone. The strikes followed an Israeli evacuation warning for a building in Arab Salim that Israel identified as a Hezbollah facility. Lebanon's latest figures, cited by EFE, say Israeli attacks have killed 4,353 people and wounded 12,323 in Lebanon since March 2.