BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, May 8 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanese media and rescue officials said, as violence escalated despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that four people were killed and three others injured in two Israeli airstrikes on the municipality of Toura in the Tyre district, with rescue teams still searching for a missing girl beneath the rubble.
According to NNA, four others were killed in a strike on the town of Sultaniyeh. Three were killed and one woman injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Arab al-Jal-Houmine al-Tahta road.
Two more were killed in an airstrike on the town of Zrariyeh, according to local media.
Lebanese media also reported that five people were killed in a series of airstrikes across several towns in the Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun districts.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it recovered the bodies of two young men who had gone missing following Israeli airstrikes on the village of Blat a day earlier.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched retaliatory attacks for Israeli ceasefire violations, claiming to have targeted an Israeli army D9 bulldozer with a suicide drone, shelled troop and vehicle gatherings, and struck a Merkava tank with guided missiles.
The group also said it fired rockets at Israel's Shraga base, the administrative headquarters of the Golani Brigade command, north of the occupied city of Acre, and a deployment site for the elite commando unit Egoz.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its air force struck and destroyed a Hezbollah rocket launcher used in attacks on northwestern Israel earlier Friday.
The launches by Hezbollah activated air raid sirens across Nahariya, Akko, and Haifa Bay, sending hundreds of thousands to shelters.
The IDF said that one rocket was intercepted and others fell in open areas, with no casualties. Yet explosive drones launched by Hezbollah on Friday wounded three Israeli soldiers, one seriously.
Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Center said the cumulative toll from Israeli attacks between March 2 and May 8 has reached 2,759 killed and 8,512 injured. The violence comes despite a ceasefire agreement that took effect at midnight between April 16 and 17 following weeks of cross-border fighting linked to the wider regional conflict involving Iran. ■
