BEIRUT (Reuters) -The Israeli military said early on Tuesday that it attacked a Hezbollah militant in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a few days after it had carried out a strike there, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-aligned group.
“The strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians,” the army added in a statement.
Witnesses said airplanes were heard flying low over the Lebanese capital and loud blasts were heard across the city.
The November U.S.-brokered truce halted the year-long conflict and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone. But each side accuses the other of not entirely living up to those terms.
The ceasefire has looked increasingly flimsy lately. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said in March that it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon, which led it to bombard targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to attack anywhere in Lebanon to counter threats and enforce a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Enas Alashray; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Lincoln Feast.)
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