A civilian was killed today by a shell that fell in the yard of his house, the mayor of Kafar Qila in southern Lebanon announced, attributing the blow to Israeli artillery. The young man was “killed by an Israeli artillery shell while he was in the garden of his house,” said Mayor Hassan Seget. The victim was a civilian and not affiliated with any faction or movement, he noted (suggesting that he was not a member of Hezbollah).

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported the death of a civilian, Hassan Ali Tawil, “by an Israeli artillery shell, which fell near his house” in Kafar Qila.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, there have been almost daily hostilities between the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which supports the Palestinian Islamist movement. In that time, 188 people have been killed in Lebanon – of which 141 were Hezbollah fighters and more than 20 civilians, including three journalists – according to an AFP count. Israel counts 14 dead, of which nine were soldiers.

Clashes have intensified since the January 2 attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in which Saleh al-Arouri – Hamas’s second-in-command – and six other members of the Palestinian Islamist movement were killed. The attack was attributed to Israel, which, however, never claimed responsibility.

Amid fears of the war spreading across the wider Middle East region, several government officials have visited Lebanon, appealing for restraint and seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis. German Foreign Minister Analena Burbock, who visited Beirut today, stressed that “all sides must prevent a further escalation along the Blue Line” drawn by the UN demarcating the Lebanon-Israel border, the German embassy in Beirut.