Beirut, Lebanon - The Lebanese Red Cross said 18 people died in a strike on north Lebanon on Monday, with the health ministry and official media reporting an Israeli raid on the Christian-majority area far from Hezbollah strongholds.

"Eighteen dead and four wounded in the strike on Aito," the Red Cross said, referring to a village in the Christian-majority Zgharta district.

The health ministry earlier said an Israeli strike there killed nine people, with the official National News Agency also saying Israel targeted a "residential apartment" in the village.

So far, Israeli strikes have mainly been concentrated in predominantly Shia areas, where Hezbollah built its power base.

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An AFP photographer at the site of the strike said it had leveled a residential building at the entrance to the village.

Body parts were scattered in the rubble, with Red Cross volunteers searching for survivors in the wreckage while ambulances evacuated wounded people.

The Lebanese army imposed a security cordon in the area, where the strike had also sparked a fire, he said.

On Saturday, the health ministry reported two dead and four wounded in an Israeli strike on Deir Billa, some nine miles from the town of Batroun on Lebanon's north coast.

DNA tests were being carried out to determine the identity of the remains, the statement added.