Israeli drone strike hits car in Ghandouriyeh, killing 3 Hezbollah members

An Israeli drone strike hit a car Tuesday morning in southern Lebanon, killing three Hezbollah members inside it, according to two security officials and a Hezbollah official.

The strike on Ghandouriyeh, about 10 kilometers from the border with Israel, came a day after a similar attack killed a commander with the militant Hezbollah group.

Two security officials said Israeli drones carried out three strikes in the area including one that hit the car killing the three instantly. A paramedic was injured after the drone fired other missiles to prevent ambulances from reaching the car, the National News Agency said.

Hezbollah on Tuesday attacked the Israeli posts of al-Malkia and al-Baghdadi and the Yiftah barracks. Israeli artillery meanwhile shelled the al-Hamams hill near al-Khiam and the outskirts of Rashaya al-Fakhar, al-Fardis, Aitaroun, Wadi Slouki, Houla and Mays al-Jabal, while Israeli warplanes struck Kfarkila.

Farther from the border, a drone targeted a car in Kherbet Selem during the funeral of a Hezbollah commander who was killed Monday in the southern village.

His killing was the second high-profile killing in Lebanon this month, following a strike in a Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah last week which killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, heightening fears of the conflict spreading.

On Monday the Israeli army also said it had killed a "central figure" in Syria responsible for Hamas rocket attacks, naming him as Hassan Akasha.

On Friday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel his fighters would respond swiftly to Arouri's killing. The group claimed an attack on an Israeli air control base the next day and attacked Tuesday the Israeli army's northern region headquarters in Safad with suicide drones "in response to the killings of Saleh al-Arouri and Wissam Tawil."

Safad is a city away from where daily Israel-Hezbollah skirmishes have been taking place.

Tuesday’s attacks relatively far from areas of operations along the Lebanon-Israel border show the rising tensions along the frontier since Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts following Israel's war on Gaza. Hezbollah says by keeping Israel’s northern front active, they are helping reduce pressure on Gaza.

On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met in Beirut with Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In November, Raad's son was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon along with five other Hezbollah members, the group had said.

The cross-border violence has killed more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.

In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.