Five people, including three children, were killed today in an Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, the country's health ministry said.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that four of those killed were citizens of the United States of America (US).
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a member of the militant Islamist group Hezbollah, saying he was "acting from within a civilian population center."
"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is acting against the terrorist organization Hezbollah and will continue to act to eliminate any threat posed to the State of Israel," the statement said.
Israel often claims that it is targeting Hezbollah officials with almost daily attacks on Lebanon, and that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities, despite a ceasefire the two countries reached in November last year.
Lebanese officials have warned that the new attacks call into question the country's recent efforts to disarm the group and could destabilize it.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack and called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop attacking the country.
"There is no peace over the blood of our children," Aoun said, according to his office.
The war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon killed around 4.000 people, and residents of large parts of the east and south of the country were internally displaced.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel's new attack was "a message of intimidation aimed at our people returning to their villages in the south."
Hezbollah officials claim that the new attacks justify their refusal to surrender their weapons and claim that the ceasefire agreement and monitoring mechanism, established by the United States (US), France and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, is ineffective.
"They have proven once again that resorting to official protection under international auspices has not provided them with security and stability," said Hezbollah official Hassan Fadlallah.
Under the Washington-brokered ceasefire, both the militant group Hezbollah and Israel were to withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon and cease attacks on each other, while Israel continued to occupy five Lebanese hills along the border with that country.
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