BEIRUT

At least three people were killed and two others injured on Sunday morning after a series of intense Israeli airstrikes targeted various areas in southern Lebanon, health officials said.

Israeli drones struck a car in Khiam town, and warplanes conducted a raid on the al-Tyri town and two airstrikes on the outskirts of Zibkin, the state-run National News Agency reported, citing sources.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car in Khaim in southern Lebanon.

Two people were also killed in another Israeli strike in the town of al-Tayri, it said, adding that two more people were injured, including a Syrian.

Israeli artillery also targeted areas in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon and the town of Al-Dahira in Tyre's western sector.

Separately, the Lebanese Amal Movement announced the death of one of its members in an Israeli strike in Khaim.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the attacks aimed to prevent a rocket barrage by Hezbollah.

The Lebanese group, for its part, said that it had launched hundreds of rockets and missiles deep into Israel as the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of its senior commander Fouad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut.

Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with the Israeli army across the Lebanese-Israeli border, resulting in hundreds of casualties, mostly on the Lebanese side.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 40,300 Palestinians since last Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi