12 Lebanese killed in Israeli strikes

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 days of 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.