At least 14 people have been killed and 15 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Ain Yaaqoub in far northern Lebanon.

The Israeli rocket that struck a building housing 30 people, including Syrian refugees, on Monday marked the northernmost point of Lebanon so far attacked by Israeli forces since fighting began in October 2023.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) initially said eight people were killed and 14 others wounded, which Ain Yaaqoub Mayor Majed Drbes later revised to 14 and 15 respectively.

“Displaced people lived in the two-story house,” Rony al-Hage, a local official, told the AFP news agency.

“Rescue and debris removal operations are still ongoing,” al-Hage said.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli raid on Saksakiyeh in southern Lebanon’s Sidon district killed at least seven people and wounded seven others, according to the Health Protection Ministry, which also reported that a total of 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks and 56 were injured across the country. Sunday.

To date, 3,243 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon and 14,134 have been injured since October 2023.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the Lebanese capital Beirut, said Syrian refugees and displaced people from other parts of Lebanon fled to Ain Yaaqoub, about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the Syrian border.

“There are so many Syrian refugees in that area who have been sheltering there for years,” Stratford said.

“We also understand that it is an area that houses Lebanese who have been forced from their homes in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley areas in the east of the country amid Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign he said. said.

“What is interesting is that this area is not a Hezbollah stronghold, and this is the second day in a row that we have seen a strike in such an area,” he added.

Commenting on the Ain Yaaqoub attack, the Israeli military said its forces targeted a “military structure with a terrorist inside” and took steps to minimize civilian casualties, saying reports of numerous casualties were exaggerated.

The Israeli military also reported Monday that Hezbollah fired about 165 rockets into northern Israel.

According to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, a total of six people were injured in the attacks, including a one-year-old child, in northern Israel.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s leading newspaper, reported on Monday that Israel and Lebanon had exchanged drafts of a ceasefire proposal through US envoy Amos Hochstein, signaling progress in efforts to reach an agreement.

A Hezbollah official also acknowledged that diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire had intensified, but said neither the Lebanese group nor the government had received any new proposals.

“There is a big movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals,” Mohammad Afif, head of Hezbollah’s press office, told a televised news conference on Monday.

“I think we’re still in the phase of testing the waters and pitching initial ideas and proactive discussions, but so far, there’s nothing real yet.”