BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a vehicle in the country’s south on Saturday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a statement, the ministry attributed the death to an “Israeli enemy strike on a car in Haruf, Nabatiyeh district”.
The Israeli military said it had killed Zayn al-Abidin Hussein Fatouni, alleging he was “a commander in the anti-tank unit of the Radwan Force Battalion” of Hezbollah.
According to the army’s statement, Fatouni “was involved in efforts to re-establish Hezbollah in southern Lebanon”.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its attacks over the past week, killing two people in two separate strikes on vehicles on Friday.
The military said it killed a Hezbollah “logistics commander” in the first strike and a member “who was involved in efforts to re-establish Hezbollah’s military capabilities” in the second.
A series of Israeli raids on Thursday on southern and eastern Lebanon killed four people, including an elderly woman, with the military saying its targets included a weapons depot, a training camp, and military infrastructure.
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, despite Israel’s assertion that they targeted Hezbollah members.
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 and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south.
Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose.
Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.
