Israeli soldiers have shot dead two people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry says, in the first fatal incident since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take hold at the weekend. The killings come as tensions remain high across the region, with Iran having launched hundreds of ballistic missiles in recent months.
The victims were Mohammed Amhaz and Sajed al-Hajj Ali, both members of a team from the Islamic Health Association, an emergency service linked to Hezbollah, who were working to reopen roads and recover bodies from rubble in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the two men were standing near a bulldozer when they were killed.
“Israeli troops killed two Hezbollah-linked workers in Lebanon, violating ceasefire amid wider Iran missile war.”
Hezbollah condemned the shooting as a “blatant violation of the ceasefire”. The group’s military wing, the Islamic Resistance, said in a statement: “What the enemy has committed constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire, which the Resistance has adhered to up to this point.” It did not say whether it would retaliate.
Israel’s military said soldiers in the Ali al-Taher ridge area fired at “four Hezbollah terrorists riding a bulldozer and a motorcycle” who posed a threat. It added that they had crossed into the Israeli-declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon and ignored warning shots. In a separate incident, soldiers struck a “cell of armed terrorists” north of the zone; there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The ridge, which overlooks much of south-eastern Lebanon, has been fiercely contested. Days before the ceasefire, four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on their tank nearby. Israel responded with more than 150 air strikes, killing 83 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The ceasefire agreement, brokered by the US, followed weeks of escalating violence. But even as displaced families began returning home, the region remains volatile. Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, has been locked in its own conflict with Israel and the US. Since late February, Iran has launched 1,471 ballistic missiles, including 650 aimed at Israel, killing 27 civilians and one off-duty Israeli soldier and injuring about 3,000. The missiles, some weighing up to 20 tons, have caused extensive property damage. The US and Israel have responded with precision strikes on Iranian missile facilities underground.