BEIRUT — Israeli fire killed two young men and wounded two others in Nabatieh al-Fawqa in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, following two days of relative calm in the country amid a fragile truce, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The Israeli army opened fire on a group of four near a bulldozer working to reopen a road in the town’s Deir neighborhood, according to NNA.
The two wounded men were taken to the Lebanese Popular Aid Hospital in Nabatieh, the agency said.
One of the wounded succumbed to his injuries, raising the death toll from the shooting to two, NNA reported later.
They are the first reported deaths from Israeli fire in Lebanon in three days, threatening a United States-brokered “ceasefire” that has largely held since Sunday.
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah denounced the “treacherous attack”, saying it was a “blatant” violation of the truce. It did not say whether it would respond.
The attack comes as Israel and Lebanon are set to hold a fifth round of direct negotiations in Washington on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said it “struck armed terrorists who posed an immediate threat” to soldiers in the Ali al-Taher ridge area of the south, within theIsraeli-declared a “security zone”.
Earlier, Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, had warned that the Lebanese group will respond to any violation of the ceasefire by Israel.
Qamati said Hezbollah’s retaliation will come “in kind”, adding that there will not be a “return to the pre-war situation” when Israeli forces launched near-daily attacks on Lebanon even as the group’s fighters held their fire.
“Hezbollah remains fully alert with its finger on the trigger, ready to confront any violation by the Israeli regime,” he was quoted as saying.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,100 people and injured over 12,000 others since March 2, according to official Lebanese figures.
Source: Saudi Gazette