A day after Israeli warplanes flattened their building, Lebanese residents helped rescuers scour the rubble for survivors, still reeling from the rare strike in the country鈥檚 far north.
The bombing killed at least eight people in Ain Yaacoub, one of the northernmost villages Israel has struck, far from Lebanon鈥檚 war-ravaged southern border.
鈥楾hey hit a building聽 where more than 30 people lived without any evacuation warning,鈥� said Mustafa Hamza, who lives near the site of the strike. 鈥業t鈥檚 an indescribable massacre.鈥�
After nearly a year of steady cross-border fire, Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah in September, mainly targeting the Iran-backed armed group in its strongholds of south Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon.
Following Monday鈥檚 strike on Ain Yaacoub, residents joined rescuers, using bare hands to sift through dust and chunks of concrete, hoping to find survivors.
The health ministry said the death toll was expected to rise.
On the ground, people could be seen pulling body parts from the rubble in the morning, following a long night of search operations.
In near-darkness, rescuers had struggled to locate survivors, using mobile phone lights and car headlamps in a remote area where national grid power is scarce.
For years, Syrians fleeing war in their home country, along with more recently displaced Lebanese escaping Israeli strikes, sought refuge in the remote Akkar region near the Syrian border, once seen as a haven.
鈥楾he situation is dire. People are shocked,鈥� Hamza said. 鈥楶eople from all over the region have come here to try to help recover the victims.鈥�
The village, inhabited mostly by Sunni Muslims and Christians, lies far from the strongholds of Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim movement.
A security source said Monday鈥檚 air strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had relocated with his family to the building in Ain Yaacoub from south Lebanon.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said the strike was aimed at 鈥榓 Hezbollah terrorist鈥� and specified that the missile used sought to minimise civilian harm.
Local official Rony al-Hage said that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since the full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war erupted in September.
After Israel ramped up its campaign of air raids, it also sent ground troops into south Lebanon.
鈥楾he people who were in my house were my uncle, his wife, and my sisters.聽 A Syrian woman and her children who had been living here for 10 years, were also killed,鈥� said Hashem Hashem, the son of the building鈥檚 owner.
His relatives had fled Israel鈥檚 onslaught on south Lebanon seeking a safe haven in the Akkar region more than a month ago, he said.
The Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon has displaced at least 1.3 million people, nearly 9,00,000 of them inside the country, the United Nations migration agency says.
Israeli strikes outside Hezbollah strongholds have repeatedly targeted buildings where displaced civilians lived, with Lebanese security officials often telling AFP the targets were Hezbollah operatives.
On Sunday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat 鈥� a rare strike north of the capital.
Earlier this month, authorities said an Israeli strike on a residential building killed at least 20 people in Barja, a town south of Beirut that is outside Hezbollah鈥檚 area of influence.
The war erupted after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, with most of the deaths coming since late September.
Meanwhile, Israel鈥檚 army announced the opening Tuesday of an additional aid crossing into Gaza, on the eve of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions for Palestinians in the war-ravaged territory.
鈥楢s part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid to the Gaza Strip, the 鈥楰issufim鈥� Crossing was opened today,鈥� the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.
鈥楾he operation includes the delivery of food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment to central and southern Gaza,鈥� they said, adding it involved the military, COGAT and defence ministry.
鈥楾he IDF Israeli army, through COGAT, will continue to operate in accordance with international law to facilitate and ease the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.鈥�
Last month, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel it had until November 13 to improve aid delivery to Gaza or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel鈥檚 biggest supporter.
The letter was sent weeks before the November 5 US presidential election won by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.
Although outgoing president Joe Biden had repeatedly urged Israel to deliver more humanitarian aid and protect civilians, he mostly stopped short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Israel鈥檚 retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,603 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory鈥檚 health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
