ADDS ONE MORE KILLED, REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, CHANGES DECK
By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Rania Abu Shamala
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL (AA) - Two people were killed Friday in Israeli drone strikes in southern Lebanon, marking new violations of a ceasefire agreement.
One person was killed in a strike on a vehicle in the Tyre District in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency NNA.
Israel claimed that the strike assassinated a field operative from the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.
“An enemy (Israeli) drone targeted a vehicle in the town of Al-Abbasiya” in the Tyre District, said the NNA.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said in a statement that it killed Mohammad Khidr Al-Husseini, whom it described as “the commander of the fire system in the Litani sector for Hezbollah” during the strike.
Separately, the Lebanese news agency reported that an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the town of Baraachit in Nabatieh district, killing one person and injuring another.
No immediate comment was issued by Israel about that attack.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since November, which ended months of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.
Lebanese authorities have reported nearly 3,000 Israeli violations of the truce, including the deaths of at least 217 victims and injuries to more than 500.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, but the deadline was extended to Feb. 18 after Israel refused to comply. It still maintains a military presence at five border outposts.