Israeli strikes on south Lebanon kill 12 people

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon killed at least 12 people on Wednesday, a medical source told AFP, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Lebanese people to join Israel's fight against Hizbollah.

Israeli forces seized a local councillor and a municipal worker from the border town of Kfarshuba, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said, while Israel said it "apprehended" two people who approached its soldiers.

An April ceasefire in Lebanon was never observed, and the latest Israel-Hizbollah war has continued despite a conditional truce deal announced last week after Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington.

The medical source said on condition of anonymity that "the number of martyrs from the Israeli airstrikes in the town of Tayr Debba is eight, and in Deir Qanun Al Nahr it is four."

The NNA reported Israeli strikes on more than 30 locations in southern and eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, including on Tayr Debba and Deir Qanun Al Nahr, and on three towns where Israel's military issued evacuation warnings.

It also reported an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in Sidon, a coastal city far from the border that has been relatively spared major Israeli attacks and which hosts many displaced people.

An AFP correspondent in Sidon heard an explosion before seeing a car burning and rescuers pulling two people from the vehicle.

In a video statement, Netanyahu told the Lebanese people that: "Israel is not at war with you. We are at war with Hezbollah, that has taken your country hostage... We yearn for peace with you, with Lebanon."

Two men seized

"Seize your future. Join Israel. Build safety and prosperity for all of our children. And once Hezbollah is dismantled, the possibilities are endless," Netanyahu added.

Hizbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

The group rejected last week's conditional truce deal, which stipulated a "complete cessation" of Hizbollah fire but did not mention a halt to Israeli strikes.

Its fighters have kept up attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon, including with rockets and drones on Wednesday.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks since March have killed nearly 3,700 people.

On the Israeli side, 29 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon, according to the military.

Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any agreement to end the wider Middle East war, but prospects for a deal were in question on Wednesday after Iran and the United States once again traded fire.

The NNA also reported that "an Israeli patrol took away Kfarshuba municipal council member Mohammad Hassan al-Hajj and worker Ahmad Salah Diab, taking them to an unknown location."

"The two men were working to pump water to the town of Kfarshuba when the Israeli patrol stopped them," it added.

Agence France-Presse