Israeli strikes on southern Lebanese town kill 12 as fears of escalation mount

BEIRUT, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese town killed at least 12 people including two children early on Monday, Lebanon's health ministry said, in one of the deadliest daysof Israeli bombardment in recent weeks.

Fears of a renewed Israeli military campaign are mounting in Lebanon after days of escalating strikes despite a June ceasefire that was meant to halt fighting between the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

A woman who said she was related to at least three of the dead said one attack hit a residential building as children were getting ready for school. The Israeli military said it struck people seen transferring weapons in the area of the town, Kfar Rumman.

At the site, Reuters reporters saw children's schoolbooks strewn between chunks of concrete where the building once stood. Rescue workers with heavy machinery had worked throughout the morning to pull bodies out from underneath the rubble.

Eight-year-old Mustafa Farhat lost his grandparents and his mother in the strike, locals said. Rescue workers were still searching for his father's body on Monday morning while the boy lay in the hospital being treated for his wounds, they added.

One of his relatives, Mona Farhat, told Reuters it was their home that was hit in the run-up to school-time.

"What did they target? What is the goal they are targeting? Do they want us to leave our land? They are mistaken," Farhat said at the hospital.

Lebanon's health ministry said 11 people, including two children and four women, were killed in that attack on a residential building on Monday. State media had earlier said the attack happened after midnight.

A separate Israeli drone strike on a civilian vehicle in the town killed one medic, the health ministry said. Two other medics were wounded in the strike, the ministry said.

The strikes on Kfar Rumman came without an online evacuation warning from the Israeli military.

ISRAEL REVIEWING REPORTS OF CIVILIANS HURT

Israel's military said steps had been taken to mitigate harm "touninvolved individuals, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance." The military said it was reviewing the report that "uninvolved individuals" were harmed as a result of the strikes.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched two explosive drones overnight towards Israeli troops operating near the Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic cluster of hills in southeastern Lebanon where Hezbollah is thought to have built an underground military complex.

Israel said last week that it had cleared Hezbollah fighters out of the ridge. Hezbollah has not commented and Reuterscould not independently confirm the military situation at Ali al-Taher.

In the days since, Israel has ramped up deadlystrikes on towns to the ridge's north and west where residents had returned after the June ceasefire, Lebanesesecurity officials told Reuters.

The officials said they were anticipating continued escalations in the south in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, at least 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes on three towns near the ridge, Lebanon's health ministry said in an updated toll.

Two of the dead were women killed in strikes on the town of Arab Salim, where Israel's military had issued an online evacuation warning at 6:04 a.m. local time (0304 GMT).

The health ministry said separate Israeli strikes on Sunday had destroyed the Ghandourhospital in the town ofNabatieh al-Fawqa.

Four other people were killed on Friday, including a woman, it added. Those strikes came without evacuation warnings.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on March 2 — two days after the start of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran — triggering an Israeli air and ground offensive.

The dead include more than 250 children, nearly 400 women and more than 130 medics, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The ministry does not otherwise distinguish between civilians and militants, and Hezbollah has not issued a toll for its own fighters.

The ceasefire saw violence decrease dramatically, but Israeli troops occupying swathes of southern Lebanon have continued razing villages in the self-declared security zone. Israel's military has continued carrying out strikes both within the zone and to its north, mostly without evacuation warnings.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Eman Abouhassira and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Andrew Heavens)