Three dead in Israel strike on south Lebanon

The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in Israeli strikes on the south on Saturday despite a ceasefire, as the Israeli military said one of them targeted a Hizbollah fighters.

"The Israeli enemy drone strike that targeted a vehicle" in Tyre district "killed one person", a ministry statement said.

The Israeli military said that it "struck and eliminated" a Hizbollah commander who was "involved in efforts to rehabilitate the terrorist organisation in the area of Bint Jbeil" near the border.

It did not specify where the strike took place.

The Lebanese health ministry later reported that another Israeli strike in Tyre district, on the town of Debaal, killed two people. The state-run National News Agency reported that it targeted a house.

Israel has kept up its strikes on Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Hizbollah including two months of all-out war.

It has warned it will continue to strike until the Iran-backed militant group has been disarmed.

Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.

Agence France-Presse