BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Lebanese soldier was among three people killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the country's south, the army said Tuesday, denying Israeli claims that he was also a Hizbollah operative.

 

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hizbollah, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group, which it accuses of rearming.

 

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Monday's strike on a vehicle was carried out by an Israeli drone around 10 kilometres from the southern coastal city of Sidon and "killed three people who were inside".

 

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that Sergeant Major Ali Abdullah had been killed the previous day "in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a car he was in" nears the city of Sidon.

 

The Israeli army said it had killed three Hizbollah operatives in the strike, adding in a statement on Tuesday that "one of the terrorists eliminated during the strike simultaneously served in the Lebanese intelligence unit".

 

A Lebanese army official told AFP it was "not true" that the soldier was a Hizbollah member, calling Israel's claim "a pretext" to justify the attack.

 

Under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hizbollah, starting with the south.

 

The Lebanese army plans to complete the group's disarmament south of the Litani River -- about 30 kilometres from the border with Israel, by year's end.

 

The latest strike came after Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives on Friday took part in a meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee for a second time, after holding their first direct talks in decades earlier this month.

 

The committee comprises representatives from Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon [UNIFIL].

 

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports.