Lebanese ArmyThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has launched an investigation after confirming it attacked a vehicle carrying Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning.
The Lebanese Army said two officers and a soldier were killed in the strike on a car, which it described as an “aggressive and barbaric raid”. The IDF said the vehicle was “moving suspiciously towards forces” and gunfire had been reported in the area.
Israel has been fighting Lebanon-based Hezbollah since March, primarily in southern Lebanon, from where the armed group has launched rocket and drone attacks.
It is not in direct conflict with the Lebanese government, which is opposed to Hezbollah and has sought to mediate a ceasefire.
The Israeli military has previously issued sweeping evacuation orders for the region as its forces continue to push north, supported by regular air strikes against Hezbollah targets.
The IDF said the vehicle it struck on Saturday was travelling in an “active and evacuated combat zone” where it believes Hezbollah has operated from.
A statement said troop movements in the area require coordination with the IDF, and repeated that its forces “are operating against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, not against the Lebanese Army”.
It said its initial investigation confirmed three soldiers were believed to be in the vehicle.
The Lebanese Army has reacted furiously to the attack, accusing Israel of “brutal, deliberate and repeated aggression”.
It shared images of the burnt out wreckage of a car on a road outside the village.
ReutersNews of the attack comes after Hezbollah’s leadership rejected efforts to revive a US-backed ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon following talks which did not involve the Iran-backed group.
That agreement stipulated Israel would not attack Hezbollah positions in the capital Beirut if the group did not attack Israel, as well as making provisions for “pilot” security zones inside southern Lebanon from which the group would be banned from operating.
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem rejected the deal, calling talks between Lebanon and Israel “futile”.
Lebanon’s government is opposed to Hezbollah but wants to end the fighting on its territory, which has previously involved major air strikes on its capital city.
It has said a ceasefire is necessary in order for its forces to disarm Hezbollah themselves, but Israel has previously accused the government in Beirut of lacking the ability to do so.
US President Donald Trump has sought to defuse the conflict in Lebanon in order to reach an agreement with Iran, which has made any deal to end its war with the US and Israel contingent on the campaign against Hezbollah being halted.
Lebanon was drawn into the war between the US, Israel and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader.
Israel responded with an air campaign across Lebanon and a ground invasion in the south.
An initial ceasefire was agreed on 16 April but it failed to stop the fighting.
Israeli strikes had largely been confined to southern Lebanon in recent weeks, though the IDF has attacked in the east of the country since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an intensification of the campaign on 26 May.
