Israel says member of Iran’s IRGC among several killed in Lebanon strikes

Strike comes hours after a previous Israeli attack the night before, in ongoing near-daily ceasefire violations.

By Al Jazeera and News Agencies

The Israeli army says an operative with the external arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is among several people killed in strikes it has carried out across Lebanon in another breach of its ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said the drone strike on Thursday hit a vehicle on the Hosh al-Sayyed Ali road in the Hermel district, killing two people.

The Israeli army said Hussein Mahmoud Marshad al-Jawhari, an alleged member of the IRGC’s Quds Force, was killed in the Ansariyah area of southern Lebanon after his vehicle was struck.

It accused him of carrying out “Iran-directed terror activities against Israel and its security forces from Syria and Lebanon”.

The IRGC did not immediately respond to the allegation.

The NNA reported another Israeli drone strike early on Thursday afternoon, saying a pickup truck was hit at the entrance to the town of Safad al-Batikh in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district.

In a short, separate statement, the Israeli army said it killed a member of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group went into effect in November 2024 after more than a year of cross-border attacks during Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. However, Israel has been staging attacks on Lebanon nearly every day since.

The attacks on Thursday came shortly after a passer-by was injured in an Israeli drone strike targeting a car in the town of Jennata in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon late on Wednesday.

Israel has killed more than 300 people in Lebanon since last year’s ceasefire, including about 127 civilians, according to the United Nations.

From January to late November, Israeli forces carried out nearly 1,600 strikes across Lebanon, according to data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Israel justifies its near-daily air raids by saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s fighters and infrastructure as it calls for the group’s full disarmament under the ceasefire.