At least seven other people were wounded in Tuesday’s airstrike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military said in a statement the latest strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip in attacks against Israel. It said the airstrike was “under the direction of the Shin Bet,” Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the airstrike.

“We must prevent any violation of sovereignty from abroad, or from infiltrators within who provide an additional pretext for aggression,” Aoun wrote in a statement posted on X. The former military chief vowed after his election in January that all weapons would be in the hands of the Lebanese state, indirectly referring to Hezbollah’s arms.

Among those killed in the airstrike were Hezbollah official Hassan Bdeir and his son, Ali, according to a Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of not authorized to speak publicly to the media. The official said that the two other people killed were their neighbours: two siblings, a young man and a woman.

Senior Hezbollah legislator Ali Ammar said the group does not want war.

“But at the same time, if war is imposed on Hezbollah … then Hezbollah is fully prepared to deter any assault,” Ammar said in a statement to the press at the site of the airstrike.

Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed the top three floors of an apartment building damaged following the strike. Piles of debris on cars below the building can be seen.

Jets were heard in parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Hay Madi neighborhood.

During Israel’s last war with Hezbollah, Israeli drones and jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel sees the area as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there.

“We were at home. It was Eid al-Fitr,” said Hussein Nour El-Din, a president in the neighborhood, referring to the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. “We didn’t know where it happened, but once the smoke cleared we saw it was the building facing us.”

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned Saturday that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanon’s government does not act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.

Under the US brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.

Israel has launched daily strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon since the US brokered ceasefire went into effect, saying it targets Hezbollah officials and infrastructure. The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the country’s southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory.-Agencies