•A destroyed car after Israeli drone attack in Lebanese village of Zebdine today
An Israeli strike in Lebanon today killed two people, including a survivor of Israel’s deadly pager attack last year, state media reported, while Israel’s military said it targeted a Hezbollah operative.
Israel has kept up attacks on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah, despite a November ceasefire following more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Lebanese group, reports AFP.
It also maintains troops in five areas of southern Lebanon it considers strategic.
Today, the Israeli military said it killed Hassan Atwi, who it described as “a key terrorist in Hezbollah’s aerial defence unit in the Nabatiyeh area”.
His wife Zainab Raslan, who was driving, was also killed, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The Israeli military alleged Atwi had “led the reestablishment and rearmament efforts” of the unit and “maintained contact with and purchased equipment from the unit’s leaders in Iran”.
Atwi was wounded and lost his sight when Israel blew up hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon last year, according to NNA.
The Lebanese health ministry also reported today’s attack.
It said two people were killed and one wounded when “an Israeli drone strike targeted a car on the Zebdine road in the Nabatiyeh district” of southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military also said it had struck “military compounds… used by Hezbollah for training” in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa area, while the NNA reported “two air strikes” in northeastern Hermel province.
The United Nations said last week it had verified the deaths of 103 civilians in Lebanon since the November truce, demanding a halt to the ongoing suffering.
Hezbollah, which was severely weakened by the war, faces a push to give up its arsenal.
The Lebanese government, under intense US and Israeli pressure, is set to discuss today the army’s first monthly report on its plan to disarm the group.
