Hezbollah denies that fighter killed was in charge of drone unit

Hezbollah has denied that a man in charge of Hezbollah’s drones in the south was killed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday.

After Israel claimed it killed Ali Hussein Barji, who it said was in charge of Hezbollah’s drones in the south, Hezbollah denied the claim and an official said Barji was only a fighter.

Barji was killed in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm in an Israeli drone strike shortly before the funeral of Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Israel's army said it had "eliminated" Ali Burji, one of four Hezbollah fighters killed on Tuesday.

It described him as "the commander of the southern Lebanon region of Hezbollah's aerial unit" who was responsible for the attack on an Israeli base earlier in the day.

Hezbollah did not name Burji as a commander in his death notice, with a source close to the group telling AFP he was "absolutely not" the commander of its aerial unit or the man behind Tuesday's attack.

Hezbollah later denied Israel's claim in a statement, adding that the commander "in charge of Hezbollah's drone unit has not been the target of any assassination attempt like the enemy claimed".

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed Tuesday at least four members of Hezbollah, a day after a similar attack killed al-Tawil.

Since the war on Gaza started, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and its other regional enemies, in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Escalating tensions have prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint and discuss potential solutions -- including land border talks.

In a meeting on Tuesday with U.N. chief of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was "ready for talks to achieve long-term stability in south Lebanon".

The three months of cross-border violence have killed more than 185 people in Lebanon, including 140 Hezbollah fighters and 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.