Israel says killed Hezbollah artillery commander in Mansouri strike

The Israeli military said it targeted Muhammad Jamal Murad, a Hezbollah artillery commander in the coastal sector, in a drone strike on Mansouri in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

The Israeli army accused Murad of being behind past rocket launches towards Israel and of attempting to rebuild Hezbollah's artillery capabilities.

Despite a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up its strikes in Lebanon, hitting suspected Hezbollah targets and occasionally those of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

The November 27 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.

Under its terms, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.