Israeli strike between Jiye and Barja wounds Hezbollah member

W460

A security source told AFP that an Israeli strike Tuesday between the Iqlim al-Kharroub towns of Jiye and Barja targeted and wounded a Hezbollah member, after Lebanese state media reported a raid on a vehicle.

Israel has continued to carry out regular air strikes in Lebanon despite a November truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

"An enemy drone targeted a little while ago a car... between the towns of Jiyeh and Barja," the National News Agency reported, referring to an area some 30 kilometers south of Beirut.

The security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the strike targeted "a Hezbollah member, who was wounded but not killed."

An AFP photographer saw a burnt-out car near a mosque, while soldiers deployed to the scene.

The strike comes a day after the Israeli military said it had hit several Hezbollah targets in the eastern Bekaa Valley, including what it described as training compounds used by the group's elite Radwan force.

Lebanon's health ministry said those strikes killed five people.

In August, the Lebanese government ordered the military to draw up plans to disarm the once-dominant Hezbollah by the end of the year, under heavy U.S. pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes.

Under the November truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Israel was to withdraw its troops from Lebanon but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.

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