Israeli strike kills civilian in Kfarkila as tensions soar

An Israeli strike has killed a civilian in a border town in southern Lebanon, a local official told AFP, as regional tensions soar amid the Gaza war.

Kfarkila mayor Hasan Sheyyet said a resident was killed Wednesday "during an Israeli artillery strike while he was in his garden", adding he was "a civilian with no party affiliation".

The official National News Agency identified the slain man as Hasan Ali Tawil. It said he was killed when "an Israeli artillery shell fell near his house in Kfarkila".

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a near daily exchange of fire between Israel's army and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Hezbollah says it has been targeting Israeli military sites in support of Gaza.

The Israeli army has responded with air and artillery strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters' movements around the border.

Hezbollah mourned the death of one of its fighters on Wednesday morning after an Israeli strike targeted his house in the town of Kfarshouba at dawn.

Since the start of the border escalation, 188 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 141 Hezbollah members and more than 20 civilians, among them three journalists, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

The Israeli army says 14 Israelis have been killed, including nine soldiers.

The killing of the deputy leader of Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri, with six of his colleagues in an air strike in southern Beirut's Hezbollah stronghold on January 2, and the killing of top field commander Wissam Tawil on Monday, both of which Hezbollah has blamed on Israel, have raised fears of a wider conflict.

Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah would speak on Sunday in a commemoration of Tawil.

The escalating tensions have prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint and discuss potential solutions -- including discussions over the disputed border.

The latest diplomat to visit was German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who met on Wednesday with Lebanese officials.

Baerbock said "all sides need to prevent further escalation along (the) Blue Line", which was drawn by the United Nations in 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the German embassy in Beirut said on X, formerly Twitter.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will hold a series of meetings on Thursday in Beirut as part of an official visit.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a news conference in Beirut last week before meeting Hezbollah representatives that "it was "absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict".