Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, Lebanese state media said, hours after the United States and Iran signed an agreement to end the Middle East war.
“An enemy drone targeted a car” in the Kfar Tebnit area, killing two people, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
In the neighbouring village of Zebdine, another drone killed one more person, NNA said.
Israel’s military, meanwhile, announced the death of one of its soldiers the night before in an incident in south Lebanon that also left seven others wounded.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March by attacking Israel to avenge the killing of the Islamic republic’s supreme leader at the start of the US-Israeli campaign.
Israel retaliated with broad strikes across Lebanon and by launching a ground invasion in the south, which borders Israel and has long been under Hezbollah’s sway.
The hostilities have continued despite the US-Iran agreement, and Hezbollah said on Thursday that its fighters had repelled a four-day Israeli offensive towards the Ali al-Taher hills and Kfar Tebnit, in south Lebanon.
The Ali al-Taher hills are a strategic height overlooking the town of Nabatieh and are believed to hold important Hezbollah positions.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops and tanks with drones, rockets and artillery, forcing them to retreat “under the cover of smoke screens and artillery fire during the night”.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it would continue to operate to southern Lebanon and would “remove threats” beyond its so-called security zone even after the United States and Iran signed their agreement.
The military also published a map of the security zone — which runs some 10 kilometres (six miles) inside Lebanese territory and includes the area where Hezbollah said it had confronted the Israeli offensive.
It said troops would continue to be deployed there “to remove threats and strengthen the defence of Israel’s northern residents”.
In a later statement, an Israeli military official said the army “will continue to remove threats to IDF soldiers and the civilians of the State of Israel that are identified beyond the security zone”.
Add Comment