BEIRUT: Two people were killed on Monday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon, according to the health ministry, with a Lebanese security source saying the car belonged to a UN-contracted company.
Hamas ally Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian group attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.
“The Israeli enemy’s strike targeting a car in Naqura left two dead,” the health ministry said, without specifying whether they were civilians.
A security source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the car “belonged to a cleaning company under contract with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)”, deployed along the border with Israel.
The two victims were “an employee of this company and his cousin, both from Naqura”, a town along Lebanon’s border with Israel, according to the source.
“The cousin, who lives in an African country, arrived in Lebanon two days ago,” the source added.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel reported that the two dead in Naqura were civilians, while Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported a drone strike on the Naqura road, without giving further details.
An AFP photographer saw the burned-out car.
Israel says it is targeting military infrastructure and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon’s south and east, while the Iran-backed movement says it is mainly targeting military positions in northern Israel.
More than 110,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon due to the cross-border fighting, according to the UN.
In Israel, authorities say around 100,000 people have been displaced in the country’s north.
The violence since October has killed some 609 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 132 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
