Israel strikes 'Hezbollah fighter' amid ramped up south Lebanon assault

Lebanese state media said an Israeli air strike hit a building in southern Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military warned residents to evacuate an area allegedly linked to Hezbollah fighters.

Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighbouring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war.

Without confirming the reported attack on the southern town of Toul, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one person, claimed to be a fighters.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that "the Israeli enemy" struck a building in Toul, where the army had told residents to evacuate the area around a building it alleged was used by Hezbollah operatives.

The "urgent warning" was accompanied by a map showing a structure and the 500-metre (0.3-mile) radius around it marked in red.

"You are located near facilities belonging to the terrorist (group) Hezbollah," the statement said in Arabic, urging people "to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them".

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Toul.

In a separate statement, the military said it had "struck and eliminated a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist in the area of Rab El Thalathine", about 17 kilometres (10 miles) to the southeast.

The NNA reported a "martyr" in an air strike in the same area, without identifying them.

The Israeli military said its forces also "struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons" in the Bekaa Valley as well as "terrorist infrastructure sites and rocket launchers belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation... in southern Lebanon".

A military statement said that "the presence of weapons in the area and Hezbollah activities at the site constitute blatant violations of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon" under the November ceasefire agreement.

Israel will "continue to operate to remove any threat... and will prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to re-establish its terror capabilities", it said.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of it.

Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems "strategic".

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

On Thursday Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned "the repeated Israeli aggressions against Lebanon at a critical moment just before municipal elections in the south", set for Saturday.

The elections have sparked rising concerns over voter safety- particularly in border towns- due to the ongoing Israeli occupation of areas in southern Lebanon.

"Prime Minister Salam stresses that these violations will not thwart the state’s commitment to holding the elections and protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese," his office stressed in a statement.

Despite a rise in Israeli strikes in recent days, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called on supporters to go out to the polls and secure a "resounding" victory.

Hezbollah has not publicly commented on the latest Israeli claims.