BEIRUT, Lebanon: An Israeli strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon killed three soldiers, Beirut’s military said Saturday, days after the countries agreed a conditional truce during talks in the United States.
Israel has launched an operation into Lebanon to root out the Hezbollah, which is said to have dragged Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by launching missiles on behalf of its sponsor.
Lebanon has vowed that it will disarm Hezbollah over time, but has also denounced Israel’s invasion, accusing it of employing scorched earth tactics to drive civilians out of southern towns and villages.
In the latest incident, the Lebanese army said, two officers and a soldier were killed in a strike on a military vehicle on the road between Khardali and Nabatieh.
The Israeli military said the vehicle targeted was “moving suspiciously” in “an active combat zone” in an area it had ordered evacuated ahead of operations.
But it insisted it “operates against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, not against the Lebanese army” and added that it was “reviewing the incident”.
Hezbollah dubbed the attack a “heinous crime” and accused the Lebanese government of exposing its own country to bloodshed through its “complete surrender to the enemy’s demands in Washington”.