An Israeli air strike has killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, according to security sources.
The commander, identified by Hezbollah as Wissam al-Tawil, was killed after the strike on an SUV on Monday.
The deputy head of a Radwan unit, and another Hezbollah fighter, were killed when the car they were in was struck in the village of Majdal Selm, some 6 km (3.7 miles) from the border, three security sources in Lebanon said.
The fighter was part of a secretive force that operates along the border, according to one official.
The source said al-Tawil is the most senior militant in the armed group to have been killed since Hamas' October 7 attack into southern Israel triggered war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
His death is the latest in an escalating exchange along the border that has raised fears over another Middle East war. An Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.
More than 130 Hezbollah fighters, including members of the Radwan force, have been killed in hostilities across the Israeli-Lebanese border since October 7.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict in the region.
Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli officials have said fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant group's October 7 attack.
The offensive has already killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swathes of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85 per cent of its population of 2.3 million, and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.
Medics, patients and displaced people fled from the main Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza as the fighting drew closer, witnesses said on Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.
Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from the hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.
Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza's hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the UN humanitarian office.
Gaza's health ministry said 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours.
World Health Organisation staff who visited on Sunday saw "sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors", Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN agency, said in a statement.
He added: "The bloodbath in Gaza must end."
