Israeli strikes on south Lebanon kill three: ministry

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes killed three people in southern Lebanon on Saturday despite a ceasefire in force there, authorities said, with Iran-backed Hezbollah suggesting its patience for the “ongoing aggression” was wearing thin.

In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy” drone strike on a car in Kunin, south Lebanon, killed one man, adding later that another person was wounded.

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The Israeli military said the strike “eliminated the terrorist Hassan Muhammad Hammoudi”, who it said was responsible for anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli territory during the recent war.

In a second statement later on Saturday, the health ministry said a strike on a motorcycle in Mahrouna, near Tyre, resulted in “two martyrs and wounded one person”, with one of the dead a woman.

The attacks came a day after Israel killed a woman and wounded 25 other people in strikes across the country’s south.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the woman was killed in an Israeli drone strike on an apartment in the city of Nabatiyeh.

But Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media that the army “did not target any civilian building”, attributing the death to a Hezbollah rocket set off by an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military said it had “identified rehabilitation attempts made by Hezbollah beforehand and struck terror infrastructure sites in the area”.

Adraee said the civilian building “was hit by a rocket that was inside the (fire and defence array) site and launched and exploded as a result of the strike”.

Israel has repeatedly bombed its northern neighbour despite the November ceasefire that aimed to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

The group’s leader, Naim Qassem, said in a televised speech on Saturday that the “ongoing aggression” by Israel “must not be allowed to continue”.

“The (Lebanese) state must exert pressure, and it must fulfil all of its duties,” he said, insisting Hezbollah had held up its end of the ceasefire bargain.

“Do you imagine we will remain silent forever? No. Everything has its limits.”

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Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.