3 killed, 2 wounded in Israeli strikes in south Lebanon

Lebanon's health ministry said three people were killed Sunday in Israeli raids in the country's south, after Israel launched strikes against Hezbollah, which announced a wide-scale attack on Israel.

An "Israeli drone strike on a car in the village of Khiam" killed one person, the health ministry said in a statement.

The Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally, later announced a fighter from Khiam had been killed.

The health ministry said that "the Israeli occupation attack on the village of Tiri" killed two people, without saying whether they were fighters or civilians.

It had earlier also reported two people including a Syrian man were wounded in "a series of Israeli raids" in the south.

Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack while the Lebanese group said it had carried out its own raids to avenge the killing of Fouad Shukur, its top military commander.

The Iran-backed movement has exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in late July killed top commander Shukur, prompting vows of revenge.

The cross-border violence since October has killed some 605 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians.