Several Lebanese soldiers, including a high-ranking officer, were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to an army statement.
“A number of military personnel, including an officer, were martyred in a barbaric Israeli raid targeting a military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatiyeh road,” the army said in a statement posted to X.
The officer killed was a brigadier-general, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it struck the vehicle after it was spotted “moving suspiciously.” The area had been evacuated, the IDF said, amid “concrete indications” that Hezbollah was operating in there. The IDF said the incident is under review and that “lessons will be learned accordingly”
The area around Nabatiyeh has seen multiple Israeli strikes in recent days, despite the renewal of a US-brokered ceasefire between the governments of Israel and Lebanon.
Two strikes in the area earlier this week killed a Lebanese soldier and injured two others.
The Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, which has targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon and communities in northern Israel, rejected the ceasefire so long as the Israeli military remains in Lebanon.
At least 21 people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, according to a CNN tally of reports by NNA.
The Israeli military issued another evacuation order to residents of several villages and towns in southern Lebanon on Saturday due to what it called “the terrorist Hezbollah party breaching the ceasefire agreement.”
It ordered civilians to move north of the Zahrani River, which is some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the border with Israel.
This post has been updated.
