BEIRUT: Lebanon said an Israeli drone strike on Tuesday killed a man and his son in a southern village, the latest deadly attack despite a November ceasefire, with Israel claiming the two were militants.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that “an Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one”.
The two dead were a father and his son, with the state-run National News Agency saying the man wounded was also his son.
The Israeli military said it had killed a Hezbollah member and an operative with the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, which is affiliated with the Iran-backed militant group.
A military statement said the two men were “handling weapons used by Hezbollah for terrorist purposes and for observation of (Israeli) soldiers in the area”, near the border.
Israel has repeatedly bombed its northern neighbour despite the November ceasefire that ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
In the capital Beirut, a Lebanese military official told AFP that army forces had launched a search in a building in the city’s southern suburbs, a densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway.
The official said the forces were looking for weapons at the request of a five-member committee supervising the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
Israel warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
The Lebanese government has condemned a massive Israeli strike on south Beirut last week, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Hezbollah said the Israeli air raid levelled nine residential blocks. The Israeli military said the strikes targeted underground drone factories.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack as “a flagrant violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
