Lebanon says two dead in Israeli strike

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed Monday in an Israeli strike on the country's south, where Hezbollah has been trading near-daily fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war in October.

Since last week, tensions have soared as Iran and Tehran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, vowed revenge for the killing of Hamas's political leader in Tehran and Israel's killing of Hezbollah's military chief in Beirut.

"The enemy raid that took place near the (Mais Al-Jabal) town's cemetery killed two people," Lebanon's Health Ministry said in a statement.


"One of the two martyrs who fell in the Mais Al-Jabal raid this morning was a Risala Scouts paramedic," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said.

Ali Abbas, a rescue worker from the Risala Scouts which is affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement, told AFP that the paramedic had travelled by motorcycle with another person to inspect the site of an earlier strike.

He went "to see if there were civilians or people (in the area)... and the second strike happened immediately," Abbas said.

Mais al-Jabal, a frontline village less than two kilometres away from the border with Israel, has experienced heavy bombardment since the cross-border clashes began, forcing most residents to leave.

Early on Monday, Hezbollah said it had targeted military sites in northern Israel with "explosive-laden drones" in response to Israeli "attacks and assassinations" in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said "numerous suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon" into northern Israel, starting a fire and leaving an officer and a soldier "moderately injured".

The cross-border violence since October has killed at least 549 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.