One dead as Israel strikes south Lebanon

Lebanon said one person was killed and several others wounded in Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Sunday, as Israel said it struck Hezbollah targets.

Despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed group, Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic.

Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and three others wounded, including a 16-year-old boy, in an Israeli strike in Ebba in the Nabatiyeh district, which is located in the country’s south.

The state-run National News Agency said the strike targeted a vehicle whose driver was killed, reporting a boy was among the wounded when his family’s car passed at the time of the raid and crashed.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah operative in the Dweir area, near Ebba, “in response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings”.

Earlier Sunday the health ministry said a strike on Qanarit in the Sidon district, far from the Israeli border, wounded one person.

The NNA said the strike targeted a bulldozer “while it was working to remove rubble” from the site of a previous Israeli attack.

The Israeli army said it struck “several Hezbollah engineering vehicles” but said they were located in an area of south Lebanon it identified as Mazraat Aboudiyeh.

“The vehicles were struck while being used by Hezbollah terrorists to reestablish terror infrastructure sites in the area,” the statement added.

Israel’s military has previously targeted bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses in south Lebanon, while Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction work in the heavily damaged south.

More than 360 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.