Lebanese army says three soldiers killed, two wounded in Israeli strike

By Tala Ramadan

BEIRUT, March ‌17 (Reuters) - Three ​Lebanese ​soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the city of ‌Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said on ⁠Tuesday, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

The ‌soldiers were struck while ‌travelling by car and motorcycle and were taken to hospital, the army said in a post on X.

The ​Israeli military said it was aware of reports that Lebanese soldiers were wounded in a strike in southern ⁠Lebanon and that the incident was under review.

It said that it operated against ​Hezbollah and not against the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The strike comes amid intensifying Israeli attacks across Lebanon, ​which have killed more than ‌880 people and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

The Lebanese army has ⁠also reported casualties in recent days, including an incident earlier this month in which three soldiers were among those killed in ⁠Israeli strikes, according to the army.

Israel's military, which has occupied five ​positions in southern Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, sent additional forces into the country after the Shi'ite Muslim group ‌fired a salvo of rockets on March 2, dragging Lebanon into the expanding U.S.-Israeli war ‌with Iran.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz has warned Lebanon ⁠that it could face ‌territorial losses unless Hezbollah ​was disarmed.

(Reporting by Tala Ramadan and Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Pooja Desai and Alex ‌Richardson)

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