Israel says killed Hezbollah ‘commander’ in south Lebanon

Lebanon said an Israeli strike Tuesday left one person dead in the south as Israel said it killed a Hezbollah “platoon commander,” its latest raid despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

A “drone strike carried out by the Israeli enemy on a vehicle in the town of Aitaroun killed one person and wounded three others including a child,” the health ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it “struck and eliminated a platoon commander in Hezbollah’s Special Operations Array” in the area.

Israel has continued to strike Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.

The United Nations Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that “at least 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect.”

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said last week that 186 people had been killed since the truce, without saying how many were the group’s fighters.

Lebanon’s health ministry has not responded to AFP requests for updated figures.

The truce accord was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and United Nations peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters from south of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure there.

Israel was to pull out all its forces from south Lebanon, although it continues to hold five positions that it deems “strategic.”
Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the south near the border as Israeli forces have withdrawn.