Israeli strikes on Lebanon Saturday killed two civilians and a Hezbollah member, officials said, while security sources told AFP a senior Hamas officer had survived an assassination attempt south of Beirut.
An Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded nine others in the southern border village of Hula, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.
Israeli forces and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily fire since war broke out on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the person killed in Hula was not a member of the group.
Hula mayor Shakib Koteish said the fatality was a civilian killed when his home, facing a local mosque, was hit.
While the Israel-Lebanon violence has been largely contained to the border area, a strike earlier on Saturday hit the coastal town of Jadra, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the closest point in Israel.
The second-farthest deadly attack from the border in four months of hostilities “was a failed attempt to assassinate a senior official in the (Hamas) movement”, a Palestinian security said, requesting anonymity for security concerns.
The NNA reported it was an Israeli drone strike.
A Lebanese security official, also requesting anonymity, identified the target as Hamas recruitment officer Bassel Saleh.
Shortly after the initial strike on Saleh’s car, a second Israeli drone hit the same location, killing two people, the official said.
Hezbollah said one of its members had died.
Saleh “survived but suffered burns on his back and was admitted to hospital”, the Lebanese official said.
The official added Saleh is “in charge of a recruitment unit in the West Bank”, occupied by Israel since 1967.
