Israeli strikes killed three people in south Lebanon Thursday, Lebanese state media reported, hours after the U.S. and Iran signed an agreement aimed at ending the Middle East war.
"An enemy drone targeted a car" in the Kfar Tebnit area, killing two people, the official National News Agency reported. Another drone killed one person in the neighboring village of Zebdine, NNA said.
Israel's military announced the death of a soldier Wednesday night in an incident in south Lebanon that wounded seven others.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group, drew Lebanon into the regional conflict in March, saying its actions avenged the U.S.-Israeli killing of then Iranian supreme leader.
Israel unleashed strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south, a border region long under Hezbollah's sway.
The hostilities have continued despite the U.S.-Iran agreement. Hezbollah said Thursday its fighters repelled a four-day Israeli offensive toward the Ali al-Taher hills and Kfar Tebnit in south Lebanon.
The Ali al-Taher hills are a strategic height overlooking the town of Nabatieh and are believed to hold important Hezbollah positions.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli troops and tanks with drones, rockets and artillery, forcing their retreat "under the cover of smoke screens and artillery fire during the night."
The Israeli military said Thursday it would continue to operate in southern Lebanon and "remove threats" beyond its "security zone" despite the agreement between the United States and Iran.
The military also published a map of the "security zone," which runs some 10 kilometers (6 miles) inside Lebanese territory and includes the area where Hezbollah said it confronted the Israeli offensive.
It said troops would remain deployed there "to remove threats and strengthen the defense of Israel's northern residents."
In a later statement, an Israeli military official said the army "will continue to remove threats to Israeli soldiers and civilians identified beyond the security zone."
