AN ISRAELI DRONE strike has killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday that the strike targeted a motorcycle and a vehicle, and wounded two other people.

The motorcyclist was killed, while only two out of six members of a family in the car survived the strike.

Four of those killed, including the children and their father, held US citizenship, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri claimed.

“Is it Lebanese childhood that represents an existential danger to the Israeli entity? Or is the behavior of this entity, in killing without deterrence or accountability, a real threat to international security,” Berri said in a statement yesterday.

Their US citizenship was called into question by a US State Department spokesperson today, who said that while “the situation is fluid”, indications are that the five killed were not US citizens.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it “struck and eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist” who “took part in attempts to gather intelligence” on Israeli troops in south Lebanon.

The four family members were in a vehicle which was struck by an Israeli attack. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) acknowledged “several uninvolved civilians” were killed and said the incident was being reviewed.

Images of the strike on Sunday show a destroyed Mercedes car.

Amani Bazzi, the mother of the children killed in the strike, was also seriously injured in the attack, and remains in Tibnin Hospital in southern Lebanon.

Amani Bazzi, shows an image of one her three children who were killed in the Israeli drone strike. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, denounced the attack, calling it a massacre.

He called on countries “to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory and abide by” the ceasefire agreement.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam similarly accused Israel of committing “a new massacre”.

“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation targeting our people returning to their villages in the south,” Salam said.

Israel has continued to carry out attacks on Lebanon, despite a truce signed in November that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

Under the US-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah and Israel were supposed to withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon and halt strikes against each other.

Despite this, Israel has maintained troops in five areas of south Lebanon it deems “strategic”.

On Friday, Israeli strikes killed two people in the south who the military claimed were Hezbollah operatives.

Additional reporting from AFP