Israeli air strikes killed 14 people and wounded 23 in the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh yesterday, rescue workers said.
The air strikes hit the village as mourners were burying 15 relatives killed in a bombing the previous day, but were not in the immediate vicinity of the funeral, a witness said.
The Shia town of Ghaziyeh, just south of Sidon, the largest city in south Lebanon and 40km from Beirut, has been housing many people displaced from their villages near the border with Israel. Israeli leaflets in Sidon and surrounding villages last week urged residents to leave the area.
Missiles slammed into a building in the town minutes after the procession passed. One person was killed and five wounded in that attack, rescuers and witnesses said.
Thirty minutes later, Israeli warplanes staged four more bombing runs, destroying two buildings, said Ghaziyeh mayor Mohammed Ghaddar. Witnesses said one of the destroyed houses belonged to Sheik Mustafa Khalifeh, a cleric linked to Hizbullah, but it was unclear if he was among the casualties. Most Hizbullah officials have left their homes and offices since the offensive began nearly a month ago.
After the first strike, screams of "Allahu Akbar! (God is great)" rang out in the crowd marching with coffins. Some broke away from the procession, others continued on.
Fifteen people died in Ghaziyeh on Monday when Israeli air strikes flattened three buildings there. The town has been targeted several times, but Monday's and yesterday's attacks were the heaviest. The town was overflowing with displaced people, who have swelled its population to 23,000.