Israeli strike kills Lebanese technician fixing phone tower, security sources say

An Israeli strike on a village in south Lebanon killed a Lebanese technician contracted by a telecoms company to fix a phone tower, Lebanon’s telecoms minister told Reuters on Friday.

The same strike also killed a medic from a civilian rescue force affiliated with the Amal Movement, an ally of the Shi’ite Muslim armed group Hezbollah, the minister and security sources said.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has been running in parallel to the seven-month-long war in Gaza, in the most intense confrontation since the two sides fought a war in 2006.

Both sides stepped up their bombardments this week, fuelling concerns of a bigger war between the heavily-armed adversaries.

Friday’s strike on the village of Teir Harfa hit a team of technicians contracted by Lebanese telecoms company Touch as they were attempting to repair the power generator at a telecoms tower, telecoms minister Johnny Corm told Reuters. They were accompanied by medics and Lebanese army soldiers.

Separate strikes on southern Lebanon on Friday killed a fighter from Hezbollah as well as two Palestinian fighters, security sources told Reuters. Several Palestinian factions have armed elements based in Lebanon and have fired rockets at Israel from there.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Friday’s strikes.

Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon has killed more than 270 Hezbollah fighters, more than 30 Palestinian fighters and more than 70 civilians, including children, medics and journalists.

Rockets from Hezbollah and other groups have killed more than a dozen Israeli troops and about half as many civilians.

Hezbollah has repeatedly said it would cease fire when the Israeli offensive in Gaza stopped, but that it was also ready to fight on if Israel continued to attack Lebanon.