An Israeli strike has killed a Lebanese soldier at a checkpoint in the country's southern Tyre region, Lebanon's military said Monday.
"An Israeli attack targeted an army checkpoint" in al-Amriyeh near Tyre, "resulting in the death of one soldier and injuries to others", the military said.
A military source told AFP the attack was the first direct targeting of a Lebanese army position since the start of the war.
Also Monday, the Israeli military said a soldier was killed a day earlier in combat in southern Lebanon, bringing to six the number of troops killed since fighting with Hezbollah started earlier in March.
"Sergeant Liran Ben Zion, aged 19, from Holon... fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered the military to further expand its operations in southern Lebanon, citing continued rocket fire by Hezbollah.
Israel has said it will seize a chunk of southern Lebanon to create a "buffer zone" against Hezbollah, stoking Lebanese fears of Israeli military occupation that could deepen instability and cause further displacement.
Authorities in Lebanon say nearly 1,240 people have been killed there. Over 400 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since it fired on Israel on March 2, sources told Reuters, but it is unclear if the official death toll includes those fighters.
