Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill five as Hezbollah claims new attacks

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday claimed casualties on both sides as Lebanon said it would complain to the United Nations Security Council over Israeli attacks.

In a sign of divisions, Lebanese ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted a cabinet session over the government decision this week to declare the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, as demonstrators rallied in support of Iran outside its embassy in Beirut.

War erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2 when the Iran-backed group began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran.

Israel has since been bombing Lebanon, mainly in areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, and has sent in ground troops in a push to establish a buffer zone in south Lebanon.

State media said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Thursday, two of them in a raid on a building in the Nabatiyeh area in the south.

AFP images showed a badly damaged building and smoke rising from the rubble, as rescue workers and firefighters worked at the scene.

Israel's military said a soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon, bringing the number of its troops killed there this month to three.

Israeli emergency services also said a rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man in northern Israel's Nahariya area.

"MDA teams have pronounced a man of about 30 dead and were treating a man of about 50 who is in serious condition," Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement.

- 'Threatening Lebanon's sovereignty' -

Hezbollah on Thursday claimed a series of attacks against Israeli troops in south Lebanon and at sites across the border, including targeting Nahariya and a barracks to the city's north, and a defence ministry complex in Tel Aviv.

It also said its fighters had fired rockets in Lebanon's Khiam, a strategic town near the border that has reportedly seen intense fighting.

A military source in south Lebanon told AFP the Israeli army was "slowly advancing a bit more each day" in the border area, including near the town of Taybeh where Hezbollah has claimed repeated attacks against Israeli troops.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called Thursday for an investigation into the killing of Hussain Hamood, a freelance journalist who worked for Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, who it said was killed in an Israeli strike in Nabatiyeh a day earlier.

Lebanon's foreign ministry this week gave Tehran's ambassador until Sunday to leave the country, the latest unprecedented step by Lebanese authorities since the war erupted.

The spat escalated as two ministers from Hezbollah and two from its ally Amal boycotted Thursday's cabinet session.

In a statement afterwards, the cabinet said Israel was "threatening Lebanon's sovereignty", and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had asked the foreign minister to "immediately file a complaint with the Security Council in this regard".

- 'Israeli decisions' -

Dozens of protesters gathered near Iran's embassy, AFP correspondents said, some waving Iranian or Hezbollah flags amid chants of "Death to America, death to Israel".

The embassy is on the outskirts of south Beirut, where Israel has repeatedly bombed in recent weeks.

"We came here to show our support for the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, so the government will back down on this decision," said protester Mohammed, declining to provide his surname.

Demonstrator Farida Noureddine, 43, said Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi "does not represent us. He is carrying out Israeli decisions."

The health ministry said Thursday Israeli strikes had killed 1,116 people including 121 children since March.

Israel's military said it had killed 700 Hezbollah fighters since the war began, although the group has not announced its casualties.

Visiting Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty of Egypt called for the immediate cessation of what he called Israel's "aggression" on Lebanon.

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