BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israeli air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed three people on Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel claimed it had targeted two Hezbollah members despite an ongoing ceasefire agreement.
Lebanese officials said one person had been killed in an “Israeli enemy strike” on a car in Naqoura, in Tyre province, while another strike on a vehicle in Nabi Sheet, in the country’s eastern Baalbek region, resulted in another fatality.
Later, the health ministry said a further strike on the town of al-Hafir, also in the Baalbek area, resulted in the death of a Syrian national and an injury to another Syrian.
This brings the number of people killed by Israel in Lebanon since Thursday to 12.
Despite a nearly year-long ceasefire, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon, often saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli army said it had killed Ali Hussein al-Mousawi in eastern Lebanon, describing him as “a weapons dealer and smuggler on behalf of Hezbollah”.
The Israeli military said it had also killed a local Hezbollah representative it identified as Abd Mahmoud al-Sayed, in southern Lebanon.
Israel has intensified strikes in recent weeks, with several deadly attacks launched over the past few days.
Last week, a United Nations special rapporteur, cited by AFP, said that deadly Israeli strikes on ostensibly civilian vehicles in Lebanon could amount to war crimes.
As part of last year’s ceasefire deal, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River.
Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.
Under US pressure, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose.
The series of deadly Israeli bombings has continued since Thursday, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear he intends to continue striking Lebanon as well as Gaza, “at his discretion.”
On Sunday, he said he does not need any green light to strike “enemies”.
This statement was made as, on the same day, one of the U.S. administration’s envoys to Lebanon, Morgan Ortagus, visited an observation post of the Israeli army’s Northern Command near the Lebanese border, according to several Israeli media outlets.
