Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

BEIRUT — Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed four people on Sunday, Lebanese state media and the health ministry said, as Israel's military said it had killed two Hizbollah militants.

"The Israeli enemy strike this evening on the town of Ainata led to the death of two people," Lebanon's official National News Agency [NNA] said, citing the health ministry's emergency service.

Earlier, the health ministry confirmed one person was killed in an Israeli strike on Mais Al Jabal and NNA reported one other fatality in Bint Jbeil.

The agency reported that an Israeli drone carried out "a strike on a vehicle in the town of Mais al-Jabal, resulting in one fatality".

The NNA said it was the third Israeli strike on southern Lebanon within 24 hours.

Earlier on Sunday, the health ministry said an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded another when it targeted a four-wheel-drive vehicle near Yater in Bint Jbeil district at around 2:00 am, the NNA reported.

"The Israeli enemy's air strike on a vehicle in the town of Yater resulted in the martyrdom of a citizen and the injury of another," the ministry said in a statement carried by the news agency.

Israel's military said that it killed two Hizbollah militants Sunday in two separate strikes on Lebanon.

"Earlier today, the IDF struck and eliminated two Hizbollah terrorists who were surveillance operatives and took part in directing terror attacks in the area of Yatar and Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

It comes a day after Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern border town of Burj al-Muluk.

Following that raid, the Israeli military said it "struck a Hizbollah terrorist who took part in terrorist activity in the area of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon".

And on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out a strike in southern Lebanon that killed a senior Hizbollah militant.

That came as Lebanon received four detainees who had been taken to Israel during fighting with Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group, with a fifth detainee, a soldier, released on Thursday after he was taken earlier this month.

A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hizbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.

Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.

Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic".

The ceasefire also required Hizbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.