Lebanon’s health ministry said today that three people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, with a source close to Hezbollah saying two of the victims were fighters from the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement.

Almost daily exchanges of fire occur between them Hezbollah and the Israeli military since the start of the war in Gaza in October. The violence worsened with the assassination by Israel on July 30 of the top military commander of the Lebanese group Fouad Shukr and the head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniya in Tehran.

“The strike by the Israeli enemy that targeted the city of Taibeh today left two people dead,” the ministry said in a statement. It added that a third person succumbed to his injuries today after being the victim of an Israeli raid targeting the southern town of Beit Leaf “several days ago”.

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the two victims in the city of Taibeh, which borders Israel, were fighters of the movement.

The Lebanese news agency ANI reported that “a drone fired two missiles at Taibeh.”

The Israeli military announced that it had “hit several Hezbollah military infrastructure” in the Odaisheh district, near Taibeh.

The military later said in a second statement that it had “bombed a Hezbollah terrorist cell in the Taibeh area” and another military structure in another nearby area.

In the evening, Hezbollah confirmed the death of two of its fighters by Israeli fire.

Yesterday Lebanon’s Shiite armed movement said it launched drones laden with explosives against a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hamas official in Sidon in southern Lebanon.

On Friday, a Hamas official was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Sidon, Lebanon. According to the Lebanese NNA news agency, Samer al-Hajj was killed when an Israeli drone hit the car he was riding in. Hamas has announced that its “commander”, Samer al-Hajj, has been killed. The Israeli military confirmed it had “neutralized” Samer al-Hajj in a raid.