Lebanese Army engineering vehicles clears the road by removing piles of dirt and rubble around the southern village of Dibbine [Getty]
Two Lebanese officers and one soldier were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatiyeh road in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said.
Later, the Israeli military said it targeted the vehicle after identifying what it described as a threat to its forces and receiving indications that Hezbollah was preparing to fire on Israeli troops from the area.
It said an initial inquiry showed that two Lebanese army officers and a soldier were inside the vehicle and that the incident was under review.
The airstrike on the road linking the city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjaayoun occurred in the morning. The army did not give further details or release the names or ranks of the troops killed.
The Lebanese army said Saturday that “the continuation of the deliberate and repeated brutal Israeli aggression… is aimed at thwarting all efforts to reach a solution that will allow for the restoration of stability”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also denounced the latest attack, calling it a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty… despite Lebanon’s efforts in the Washington negotiations to put an end to the continued Israeli aggression that goes unchecked”.
Israel on Saturday renewed evacuation orders for five villages in Lebanon’s south and east, telling residents to move north of the Zahrani River. Its military conducted several strikes across South Lebanon, according to Lebanese state media.
“In light of the terrorist Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the [Israeli army] is forced to act against it with force,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on Telegram.
The Lebanese army has largely stayed out of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and has not taken part in the fighting during the current conflict. Despite this, dozens of soldiers have been killed and wounded by Israeli attacks.
The latest declared ceasefire came about through US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon’s government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities. The militant group has refused the truce.
The all-out war resumed on 2 March when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began their attacks on Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel has since launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and carried out wide attacks that have displaced more than 1 million people.
Israel’s troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country’s south than at any time since the end of its 1982-2000 occupation.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since 2 March.
