The Israeli military said it killed two Hezbollah members in strikes Sunday on southern Lebanon, where Israel has carried out repeated attacks despite an ongoing ceasefire with the Iran-backed group.
The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in strikes in different parts of the south.
“Today, the (army) struck and eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists in different areas in southern Lebanon within less than an hour,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
One strike killed a Hezbollah member in the area of Yater, the military said, accusing them of having taken part in the group’s “attempts to reestablish its infrastructure”.
Another strike in the Bint Jbeil area killed a member who “served as the local representative of Hezbollah”, the army said, adding it targeted a third person but “the results of the strike are being examined”.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes killed three people in Yater, Safad Al-Battikh and Jwaya.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five southern areas it deems strategic.
Israel says the strikes target Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming.
The only diplomatic contact between Israel and Lebanon is through a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which includes the United States, France and the United Nations.
The mechanism’s next round of talks will be on December 19.
On Saturday, the Israeli army said it had “temporarily” suspended a planned strike on a building in Yanuh that it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.
According to the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled.
Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon’s army is to conduct the dismantling south of the Litani by the end of the year, before tackling Hezbollah’s weapons in the rest of the country.
In a televised speech Saturday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, who has repeatedly rejected attempts to disarm the group, said “disarmament will not achieve Israel’s goal” of ending resistance, “even if the whole world unites against Lebanon”.
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