BEIRUT (Reuters) -An Israeli drone strike killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil on Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel has frequently targeted what it calls Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon since a U.S.-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel took effect in November, following more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza.
Lebanon’s state news agency said the strike hit a motorbike and a vehicle, wounding two others.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement that a father and his three children were among the dead, with the mother wounded. He said they held U.S. citizenship.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation aimed at our people returning to their villages in the south,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on X.
Lebanon is under pressure from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals to disarm the Iranian-backed group.
Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep even to discuss disarmament while Israel is continuing airstrikes on Lebanon and occupying swaths of territory in its south.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Hatem Maher; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Christina Fincher)
