Beirut, Lebanon–An Israeli strike Sunday on south Lebanon killed a Hizbollah fighter, a source close to the group told AFP, with a security official saying the target was a high-level commander who survived.
Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel’s army and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah group, an ally of Gaza-based Hamas.
The strike on a car in south Lebanon “killed a member of Hizbollah’s protection team”, a Lebanese security official told AFP, adding that the senior commander he was protecting “escaped death”.
A source close to Hizbollah confirmed a Hezbollah fighter had been killed, but denied that a high-level official had been the target of the strike.
Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity for security concerns.
According to the security official, the Hizbollah commander was in a vehicle with three other people, behind the car that was hit.
The source close to Hizbollah said the strike also wounded a civilian woman who was in the area at the time of impact.
Later Sunday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a Lebanese woman died in the hospital of wounds sustained in the strike.
NNA had earlier reported one death in an Israeli drone strike on Kafra, a village near the border.
“The strike that targeted a car in Kafra killed one person while others suffered moderate and minor injuries,” NNA said.
It added that the drone struck near an army checkpoint, destroying a four-wheel drive vehicle and setting another car on fire.
Another security official told AFP there were no casualties among Lebanese soldiers.
Exchanges of fire
Hizbollah later said one of its fighters had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem” — the phrase the group has been using for members killed by Israeli fire.
The group said its fighters had fired at northern Israel in response to the Kafra strike.
The Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Hizbollah-allied Amal movement, said two of its rescuers had been injured in the Kafra strike.
Israel targeted several locations in Lebanon’s south Sunday, the NNA said, including five houses that were destroyed in the border village of Markaba, without causing casualties.
The Israeli army said it struck Hizbollah positions in Markaba as well as other targets in south Lebanon including “a Hizbollah operational command centre and military compound”.
Hizbollah also said it targeted Israeli military positions across the border on Sunday.
Since the October start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, tensions have soared across the region, with violence involving Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as Lebanon, stoking fears of a wider conflagration.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Lebanese border villages, with the violence killing more than 195 people in the country, including at least 144 Hizbollah fighters, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed in the northern border area, of whom nine were soldiers and six civilians, according to the Israeli army.