Israeli strike kills local official in southern Lebanon: Report

A local Lebanese official has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon as tensions escalate along the border between the Arab country and the Israeli-occupied territories amid Tel Aviv’s brutal aggression against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported the fatality on Monday and said Hussein Mansour, the 80-year-old mayor of the border town of Taybeh, had been killed in an Israeli strike targeting his home.

“The shell that targeted (Mansour’s) house did not explode” but struck the local official and killed him, the NNA said, adding that eight other people were on a balcony with him at the time.

The broadcaster also reported Israeli bombardment of several Lebanese border towns, including Jabal al-Rihan, Khallet Khazen, Yaroun, and Meir Mimas.

Other Lebanese media outlets also confirmed reports on Mansour’s martyrdom in the Israeli targeting of his residence.

In retaliatory strikes on Monday, Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah said it shelled three Israeli military outposts near the border with southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire since early October, shortly after the regime launched its devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by the Palestinian resistance groups into the Israeli-occupied territories.

Since the exchanges began, more than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.