Israeli airstrike kills 3 Lebanese soldiers in southern village

An Israeli airstrike targeted on Tuesday a Lebanese army center in the southern village of Sarafand, killing three Lebanese soldiers, according to a statement by the Lebanese army on X platform, reported Xinhua.

The health ministry said that the airstrike also injured eight other people, including civilians residing in surrounding areas.

Lebanese security sources told Xinhua that the incident occurred when an Israeli drone fired two air-to-surface missiles at an army post in Sarafand, killing three soldiers from the army's intelligence branch and destroying the post.

This follows an Israeli artillery attack on Sunday that killed two Lebanese army personnel and wounded three others near the town of Mari, in the eastern areas of southern Lebanon.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants instructed on Monday Lebanon's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York to file a complaint with the UN Security Council in response to the repeated Israeli targeting of the Lebanese army.

The deaths of the three soldiers have raised the army's death toll to 39 since the beginning of the war on Oct. 8, 2023.

Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has intensified its air attack on Lebanon in an escalation of conflict with Hezbollah. Israel further initiated a ground operation across its northern border into Lebanon in early October.

Meanwhile, three Palestinian men were killed on Tuesday in clashes with Israeli forces after they were surrounded near the town of Qabatiya in Jenin, northern West Bank.

"We were informed by the General Authority for Civil Affairs that three young men were killed by Israeli forces' bullets near Qabatiya," the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said in a press statement.

The ministry identified the victims as 24-year-old Raed Hanaysheh, 25-year-old Anwar Sabaaneh, and 32-year-old Suleiman Tazaza.

Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rab told Xinhua that Israeli forces assassinated three young men from the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after besieging a house where they were holed up, and their bodies were detained.

He added that the Israeli forces fired several shells at the house amid heavy gunfire.

Abu al-Rab denounced the continued Israeli incursions into the Jenin city and camp, adding that each time there is widespread destruction of the infrastructure.

Israeli forces stormed the city and camp with a number of vehicles and bulldozers, destroying main roads in the city and some neighborhoods of the camp, said Palestinian security sources.

Undercover Israeli Border Police officers surrounded a building in Qabatiya and carried out a tactic known as "pressure cooker," which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush "suspects" out, Israeli media said on Tuesday.

Israel Police said in a statement on Tuesday that during a "counterterrorism" operation that was carried out this morning in the Jenin area, the police, in cooperation with the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), killed three militants and seized weapons.

The West Bank has been witnessing an escalation of tension since Oct. 7, 2023, which has led to the killing of more than 770 Palestinians by Israeli bullets and shelling, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.