Hezbollah member among 3 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes targeting a town and a village in southern Lebanon on Sunday resulted in the deaths of a Hezbollah member and two civilians, with another civilian being injured, Lebanese military sources said.

The anonymous sources said the Israeli army used for the first time a suicide drone to target a motorcycle on the road linking the town of Naqoura to the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, killing a local Hezbollah leader and seriously injuring a civilian, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a separate attack, an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the village of Aita al-Shaab, killing two civilians.

The sources said that the killed Hezbollah member was Mohammad Hassan Baydoun from the city of Bint Jbeil, and the two civilians killed in Aita al-Shaab were Rafiq Qasim and Hussein Saleh.

Lebanese military sources said that they monitored the launching of 24 surface-to-surface missiles from southern Lebanon to northern Israel.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 487 people on the Lebanese side, including 309 Hezbollah members and 91 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.