ISRAELI forces killed at least 20 people in a wave of air attacks on southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Dozens of others were injured during the attacks.

Air raids on the al-Baqbouq area, north of the city of Tyre, killed at least five people and wounded two others, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). Four bodies were recovered from the rubble but Israeli air attacks hampered the work of emergency services.

At least nine people were killed and six others injured in an air attack that targeted a residential building in the town of Seir al-Gharbiya, in the Nabatieh district. 

An Israeli attack on a house in the town of al-Rafid in the Rashaya al-Wadi district killed one person and wounded another, according to the NNA. 

Another Israeli air attack hit the town of al-Shahabiya, killing and wounding several people.

An Israeli drone attack reportedly killed one person in the town of al-Housh in Tyre district. 

A night-time strike killed four people in the town of Deir Qanoun en-Nahr in Tyre district and the NNA said another in Tyre caused severe damage when it hit a site near Hiram Hospital in Aabbasiyyeh.

About 40 patients were in the hospital at the time of the attack, including several in intensive care, when an Israeli evacuation warning was issued, according to the hospital. The Ministry of Public Health said that at least 25 medical, nursing and administrative staff at the hospital had been wounded. 

“This is the second time in less than two months that the hospital has been exposed to these dangers due to repeated Israeli targeting, which constitutes further evidence of the Israeli enemy’s violation of international humanitarian law,” the ministry said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.