In a falafel joint in south Lebanon, Hussein Murtada prepared flat-bread snacks for his few remaining customers as an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed above the border village of Kfar Kila, AFP reports.

“We work under the bombs. A few days ago, a shell fell 200 metres from here. Shrapnel hit the shopfront and the wall,” said Murtada, 60, pointing to the damage.

“I hid behind the fridge in the restaurant” during the bombardment, he told AFP.

Israel has been responding with its own bombardments in mostly tit-for-tat exchanges that have been largely contained to areas near the frontier, although fears remain of a broader conflagration.

More than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally.