Passengers on board an evacuation ship told medical doctor Boris Buck from the German city of Munich that they had seen members of the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah group or their sympathisers killing 18 Lebanese people during the night.

The victims were suspected of helping the Israeli air force pick out targets.

The doctor, who was accompanying German citizens on their sea journey from Tyre to Cyprus, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the witnesses had told him the spies had been accused of painting with luminous paint houses in which Hezbollah fighters were hiding out.