Lebanese soldier among those killed in Monday's Israeli strike, army says

A Lebanese soldier was among three people killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the country's south, the army has said, denying Israeli claims that he was also a Hezbollah operative.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually claiming it is targeting Hezbollah, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Shia group, which it accuses of rearming.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Monday's strike on a vehicle was carried out by an Israeli drone around 10 kilometres from the southern coastal city of Sidon and "killed three people who were inside".

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that Sergeant Major Ali Abdullah had been killed on the previous day "in an Israeli air strike that targeted a car he was in" near the city of Sidon.

The Israeli army claimed it had killed three Hezbollah operatives in the strike, claiming in a statement on Tuesday that "one of the terrorists eliminated during the strike simultaneously served in the Lebanese intelligence unit".

A Lebanese army official told AFP it was "not true" that the soldier was a Hezbollah member, calling Israel's claim "a pretext" to justify the attack.