An 87-year-old French woman died after a “strong explosion” in a village in southern Lebanon, which was under intense Israeli bombardment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday.
“We deplore the death last Monday of a compatriot aged 87 in a village near the city of Tyre” where the building in which she lived collapsed after a “strong explosion”, the Quai d’Orsay told AFP, without providing further details as to the cause of the explosion.
France is not aware of any other French victims “at this stage” in the rest of the country, according to the same source.
Israel continued its massive airstrikes on eastern and southern Lebanon for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, vowing to fight Hezbollah “until victory.”
The bombings, which have killed more than 600 people since Monday, including many civilians, have forced more than 90,000 people onto the roads in Lebanon, according to the UN. More than 22,000 of them have crossed into Syria, security sources in that country said.
Faced with this escalation which threatens to drag the Middle East into war, France and the United States, joined by Arab, Western and European countries, called on Wednesday for an “immediate 21-day ceasefire” to “give diplomacy a chance”.
