BEIRUT: Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed three people in the south on Wednesday as Israel said it targeted two Hezbollah operatives, the latest attacks despite a ceasefire with the Iran-backed militant group.
An “Israeli enemy drone” struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the Tyre region, killing one person, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
It later said additional Israeli drone strikes killed one person in Yater and another in Aitaroun, both near the border.
Israel has kept up raids on its northern neighbor despite the November truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
The Israeli army said its forces struck a Hezbollah operative in the Tyre region, saying he was “responsible for establishing the necessary infrastructure for the production of precise surface-to-surface missiles in the area.”
It also said it “eliminated a commander” in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in the Yater area.
An official from Yater said the strike killed a man who was using a bulldozer to remove debris from his home which was damaged during the conflict, the state-run National News Agency reported, adding that the Aitaroun raid targeted a motorcycle.
It was the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.
The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw its remaining troops.
On Tuesday, US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus said Lebanon still had “more” to do in disarming Hezbollah following the war.
