At least seven killed in strikes on Keserwan and Chouf

An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Keserwan town of Maaysra Wednesday, killing three people and wounding nine others, the Health Ministry said.

The strikes hit the mountain village north of Beirut for the first time, while Israel said it was carrying out "extensive" strikes on Hezbollah strongholds.

The National News Agency reported "two rockets fell in Maaysra", a Shiite-majority village in a mostly Christian mountain area about 25 kilometers from Beirut, with residents confirming the strike hit their village, destroying a house and a cafe.

Fatima from Maaysra, declining to provide her surname, said the targeted two-story building was her relative's home and housed people displaced from south Lebanon.

"They bombed an area full of displaced people," she said. "Nowhere is safe anymore."

An AFP correspondents at the site of the strike saw rescuers searching for survivors in the rubble of the targeted building and listening for any signs of life under the wreckage.

The village was filled with Hezbollah and Lebanese flags, he said.

A strike later on a house in the village of Joun in the Chouf mountains, southeast of Beirut, killed four people and wounded many.

23 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including in the two rare strikes in the mountain areas outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

The other people were killed in Israeli strikes in south and east Lebanon.