Israeli air strikes on a village in southern Lebanon have killed at least 12 people, the Lebanese health ministry says. Eleven people, including two children and four women, were killed in a strike that destroyed a residential building in Kfar Roummane overnight. A second strike on a vehicle killed a paramedic. The Israeli military said it struck infrastructure sites belonging to the Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah, as well as 'several terrorists' transferring weapons, in retaliation for a drone attack on troops in an occupied area of the country.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the 'dangerous escalation' was jeopardising June's US-brokered ceasefire, which was meant to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. He urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop the attacks. The Israeli military has intensified its strikes in southern Lebanon in recent days. They have happened in places near the strip of territory that is occupied by Israeli troops, and large numbers of residents have again been fleeing those areas.

The latest attacks targeted Kfar Roummane, in Nabatie, which is only a few hundred metres from what the Israeli military calls its 'security zone'. The first air strike destroyed a three-storey residential building near the town's Shuyuiya roundabout shortly after midnight, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. The Lebanese health ministry said that in addition to the 11 people killed, eight were injured, including three children and a paramedic from the Islamic Health Association, which is an emergency service linked to Hezbollah.

The second strike hit a vehicle carrying paramedics from the Islamic Risala Scout Association, killing one of them and injuring two others, according to the ministry. The Risala Scouts is an emergency service affiliated with the Amal movement, a Shia group allied to Hezbollah. The health ministry said the death toll 'serves as further irrefutable evidence of the grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli occupation, targeting medics and children'.

A resident of Kfar Roummane, Sara Moallaem, 35, told the BBC that she had been asleep with her five children in their rental home when she heard the explosions. She immediately grabbed her children and moved them into the home's 'safe room' while they waited for the booms and the sirens to stop. Some of those killed in the strikes were distant relatives of Sara's husband. She insisted they were civilians with no affiliation to Hezbollah. Sara said she was planning to move her family to the coastal city of Sidon for their safety.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck 'several Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites across southern Lebanon' overnight after the group's fighters launched two explosive drones towards Israeli troops operating in the Ali al-Taher ridge area, which is just south of Kfar Roummane and inside the Israeli-declared 'security zone'. 'Additionally, the IDF struck several terrorists who were identified transferring weapons in the area of Kfar Roummane, in order to remove the threat they posed to IDF soldiers.' The claim that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strikes is being reviewed, it added.