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BEIRUT: Lebanon said Thursday that Israeli strikes killed six people in the country’s south, with Israel saying it struck Hezbollah operatives.
The strikes were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on south Lebanon, despite a November ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah after more than a year of hostilities.
The Lebanese health ministry said “two people were killed in an enemy strike on the village of Baraashit” in Nabatieh district.
Earlier the ministry said an “Israeli enemy strike on a car in Yohmor Al-Shaqeef led to the death of three people,” in a statement reported by the National News Agency.
The news agency said a drone targeted a vehicle near the town, in a strike that came at the same time as artillery shelling.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several Hezbollah terrorists were identified transferring weapons in the area of Yohmor in southern Lebanon,” adding that the army “struck the terrorists.”
NNA also reported that “one person was killed and another wounded in the Israeli drone targeting... of a car in the (southern) town Maaroub.”
The Israeli military said that overnight, the air force “struck and eliminated... a battalion commander” in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in the Derdghaiya area, near Maaroub.
It accused him of having “advanced and directed numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians” and troops during the war, and of also directing “terror attacks against Israel’s Home Front” in recent months.
Israel has continued to carry out raids in Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire, striking what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the truce agreement.
Last weekend saw the most intense escalation since the truce, with Israeli strikes in the south killing eight people, according to Lebanese officials.
Israel’s raids were in response to rocket fire, the first to hit its territory since the ceasefire.
No party has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which a military source said originated north of the Litani River, between the villages of Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun.
Hezbollah, heavily weakened by the war, denied involvement.
Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel was to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but still holds five positions in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.