Israel renews Lebanon strikes, scores wounded

Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Sunday killed at least 15 people, a day after Israel threatened to hit Lebanon's main border crossing with Syria, forcing it to close. Israel has launched airstrikes across Lebanon as well as a ground invasion in the south since March 2, when armed group Hezbollah entered the Middle East war on the side of its backer Iran. Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visited troops in southern Lebanon on Sunday and pledged to intensify strikes against Hezbollah. One of Israel's strikes in Beirut on Sunday killed at least five people and wounded 52 in the Jnah neighbourhood, the Lebanese health ministry said. A strike targeting an apartment building in Ain Saadeh town east of Beirut killed three people and injured three others, while a strike in the southern town of Kfar Hatta, far from the border with Israel, killed seven people including a four-year-old girl, the ministry said. Hezbollah on Sunday claimed to have fired a cruise missile at an Israeli warship off the coast, but the Israeli military told AFP it was "not aware" of such an incident. Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the start of the war have killed more than 1,400 people, including 126 children, and displaced over a million, according to Lebanese authorities. The strike in Beirut's Jnah neighbourhood landed about 100 metres away from the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public medical facility in Lebanon, a medical source told AFP. Zakaria Tawbeh, deputy head of the hospital, said they received "four killed, three Sudanese and a 15-year old girl, and 31 wounded". "Lots of glass was broken, and some of our patients had panic attacks." Israel also launched several strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area now largely evacuated but where Hezbollah holds sway. The United...