BEIRUT: A man was killed in an Israeli drone strike on southern Lebanon on Thursday, the health ministry said, after Israel announced it was carrying out “special, targeted operations” against Hezbollah.
Despite a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up its strikes in Lebanon, hitting suspected Hezbollah targets and occasionally those of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
“One man was killed and two others wounded in an Israeli enemy drone strike that targeted a motorcycle in the village of Mansouri” near the coastal city of Tyre, the ministry said.
The Israeli military identified its target as Muhammad Jamal Murad and said he was a Hezbollah artillery commander in the coastal sector.
It accused him of being behind past rocket launches towards Israel and of attempting to rebuild Hezbollah’s artillery capabilities.
On Tuesday, a drone strike hit a car in a nearby village, killing another man the Israeli military said was involved in developing Hezbollah’s artillery capabilities.
Israeli strikes on south Lebanon kill three: ministry
The November 27 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.
Under its terms, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) 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 places it deems strategic.
On Thursday, a patrol of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon was blocked and pelted with stones by “several individuals in civilian clothes” in the southern village of Wadi Jilu, UNIFIL said.
“The (Lebanese army) arrived at the scene and the situation was brought under control,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said.
In recent weeks, several incidents have seen civilians in Hezbollah strongholds confront UNIFIL patrols. The UN force sits on the ceasefire monitoring committee alongside Lebanon, Israel, France and the United States.
Referencing the attacks, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told EU ambassadors “these were limited and isolated incidents, which are being addressed and contained,” adding that the “safety of UNIFIL personnel is essential to Lebanon, and that cooperation with the army is close”.
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