Hezbollah shoots down drone in south Lebanon after 2 killed in strike on Touline
Hezbollah shot down one an Israeli drone in south Lebanon on Friday, hours after a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group was extended.
Hezbollah stated that its fighters launched a surface-to-air missile that shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over the Tyre region.
The Israeli military confirmed that a "remotely piloted aircraft" was downed in southern Lebanon following the launch of a small surface-to-air missile"" by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it was in retaliation for Israeli violation of Lebanese air space.
The group also targeted Friday Israeli troops in the southern border town of Qantara with an attack drone, while Israeli troops were detonating houses in Khiam. The border towns of Qantara and Khiam are in a "buffer zone" that Israel is occupying in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army had targeted earlier on Friday the southern villages of Touline and Kherbet Selem despite residents returning home to their southern towns and villages after a 3-week extension of the ceasefire.
The strike on Touline killed two, the health ministry said.
In Zar'it, northern Israel, sirens sounded following the detection of a drone infiltration from Lebanon.
Hezbollah said on Thursday it fired rockets at northern Israel in response to the country's ceasefire "violations", as Lebanon and Israel's U.S. ambassadors were set to meet in Washington.
"In defense of Lebanon and its people, and in response to the Israeli enemy's violation of the ceasefire and its targeting of the town of Yater in southern Lebanon," Hezbollah "targeted the Shtula settlement with a rocket salvo", the group said in a statement.
The Israeli military said "several launches that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified" and intercepted.
An Israeli strike on Shoukine had killed three people on Thursday.
In a statement, the ministry said that "an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district," more than 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel, killed three people while artillery shelling of the village of Yater wounded two people, including a child.
The attacks come shortly before a second meeting between Lebanon and Israel's U.S. ambassadors in Washington, where Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire by three weeks.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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