Eight people, all but one of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, official sources said, while the Israeli army said it lost a soldier in cross-border rocket fire, writes The Guardian.

While the rocket attack was not immediately claimed, the exchanges of fire – and the worst single-day civilian death toll in Lebanon since cross-border hostilities began in October – raised fears of a broader conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.

On Wednesday evening, four civilians from the same family “including two women” were killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the city of Nabatiyeh, a Lebanese security source told AFP, updating an initial toll of three dead.

“The residents of the apartment targeted have no links to Hezbollah”, added the source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Earlier, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes targeted a house in south Lebanon’s Sawwaneh, killing three members of the same family, identifying them as a Syrian woman and her child, aged 2, and stepchild, 13. The agency said another Israeli attack targeting the village of Adshit killed one person, who Hezbollah announced was one of its fighters, and wounded 10 others, destroying a building and causing significant damage nearby.

The Israeli army said in a statement Sgt Omer Sarah Benjo, 20, was killed “as a result of a (rocket) launch carried out from Lebanese territory on a base in northern Israel”.

Fighter jets struck a series of “Hezbollah terror targets” in several areas of south Lebanon including Adshit and Sawwaneh, the military said.

The Israeli military and the Iran-backed Lebanese group have been trading near daily cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.