SOUTH LEBANON, Oct. 20 A teenage girl received shrapnel wounds in a strike by the Israeli army in the border village of Houla in southern Lebanon, the victim's grandmother said.
“We were sitting in the yard, the granddaughter was sitting opposite us. At some point there was an explosion right next to the house, then I saw blood on the granddaughter’s back, she was taken to the hospital,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
According to a relative, before the strike, a drone was visible over the village at a low altitude.
““Shrapnel from the shell broke the windows of a house and a car in the parking lot. Windows in shops were broken. At first we thought that the shell hit the house, as it shook,” added a relative of the victim.
Hezbollah fighters on Thursday attacked the Israeli army's al-Abbad stronghold in the Manara settlement, bordering the Lebanese village of Houla. In response, artillery fire was opened on the village.
Shelling from both sides on the Lebanese-Israeli border has been continuing for more than a week. The situation escalated sharply after Israel announced a military operation against the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
On the morning of October 7, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented-scale rocket attack from the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, announced by the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement. In addition, after massive rocket attacks, the organization’s fighters penetrated into the border areas in southern Israel. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Within days of the attack, the Israeli military took control of all settlements near the Gaza border and began conducting air strikes on targets, including civilians, in the strip. Israel also announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: the supply of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel was suspended.
The number of victims in the Gaza Strip has reached 3,478 people, and the death toll of Israeli residents has reached a thousand; several thousand Israelis and Palestinians have been injured. Several dead and missing Russians, as well as citizens of other countries, were reported. According to various sources, Hamas may hold about 150 Israelis captive. The movement itself stated that there are about 200-250 prisoners in the Gaza Strip.