Eight Lebanese civilians including a woman and her six children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Nmeiriya yesterday, local media reported.

An Israeli air raid leveled a house in Nmeiriya, killing a Lebanese woman and her six children, said the reports, adding that a man was also killed in the strike.

Meanwhile, rescuers retrieved on Saturday six bodies from the rubble of a house destroyed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese border town of Ain Arab.

Lebanon has said that about 600 Lebanese civilians have been killed in the 18 days of violence, which erupted on July 12 following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas.

Israel has kept up intense bombardments on targets across Lebanon while Hezbollah has continued showering Israel with rockets.

Over 50 Israelis including 18 civilians have been killed in the conflict so far.