Death toll from Israeli raid on Lebanon rises to 31

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said at least 31 people, including three children and seven women, were killed in the Israeli attack on southern Beirut on Friday.

A total of 68 people wounded during the attack were transferred to 12 hospitals. Fifteen are still in hospitals, including two who are in critical condition, he added.

Friday’s strike comes two days after a wide-ranging attack targeting walkie-talkies and pagers that injured nearly 3,500 and left at least 37 dead across Lebanon.

Hezbollah and the government in Beirut have accused Israel of being behind the explosions.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that pager and walkie-talkie blasts by Israel in Lebanon are a declaration of war.

“The enemy has crossed all red lines and all laws in this attack. This is a massive terrorist attack, genocide, a massacre,” Nasrallah said Thursday in his first televised address since the attack.

“The Tuesday and Wednesday massacres are a war crime, a declaration of war…you can call it anything,” he continued, adding Israel will face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not”.