Lebanese villagers killed in attack on convoy

At least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed today in what appeared to be an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon, a witness said.

Meanwhile, Israeli medics say Hezbollah rockets hit the Israeli city of Tiberias, about 22 miles south of border with Lebanon.

The Lebanese convoy was leaving the border village of Marwaheen, when it was attacked. An Associated Press photographer said he counted 12 bodies in two cars that were destroyed by the attack shortly after midday (10am Irish time).

Several hours earlier, Israeli forces across the border told villagers by loudspeaker to leave the area or else the village would be destroyed. They did not give a reason for the ultimatum.

The convoy of several vehicles was hit near the border fence about 1km from the village.

The residents said they had first gone to a UN peacekeepers position manned by Ghanian forces to take refuge but they were turned down. There was no immediate confirmation from UN peacekeepers, who have a force in southern Lebanon.

It was not immediately known if there were any casualties in the Hezbollah rocket attack on Tiberias, which is situated on the Sea of Galilee, about 22 miles south of the border with Lebanon.

Four Israeli civilians have been killed in rocket attacks since they began Wednesday after Israel launched the offensive after Hezbollah militants killed two soldiers and killed eight.

In other developments security officials said three civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a bridge on the Beirut-Damascus highway in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near Syrian border.