BEIRUT, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Hezbollah member was killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike in southwestern Lebanon, according to Lebanese sources.
The Public Health Emergency Operations Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, said in a statement that the strike targeted a motorcycle in the Ain Baal-Bazourieh area.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement that one of its members, Wassim Said Jbaa'i, was killed, without giving further details.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on social media platform X that the military had killed Jbaa'i in the Ain Baal area, describing him as a central Hezbollah figure involved in directing operations, promoting arms procurement deals, and helping launch missiles and rockets toward Israel.
According to Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA), citing a Lebanese army intelligence source and local eyewitnesses, Israel also launched a series of airstrikes on southwestern, southern, and eastern Lebanon since early morning.
The NNA reported that in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces at dawn demolished a special education building on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab village, while an Israeli drone crashed in Adaisseh village, prompting the Lebanese army to inspect the site.
Lebanon's Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed condemned on X the Israeli "aggression" in Aita al-Shaab as "a blatant breach of international humanitarian law and all conventions protecting the most vulnerable groups."
Separately, responding to Adraee's announcement on X of his field tour earlier in the day to Al-Khiam town in southern Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said: "This aggressive behavior once again confirms Israel's determination to undermine stability in the south." Writing on X, Salam urged global pressure on Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory.
A ceasefire brokered by the United States and France between Hezbollah and Israel has been in place since Nov. 27, 2024. However, Israel has occasionally launched strikes in Lebanon, citing security threats, while maintaining forces at several positions along the border after missing the Feb. 18 deadline for a full withdrawal. ■
