BEIRUT

Two people in southern Lebanon were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, including at least one member of Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

According to the official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), two rockets fired from an Israeli drone hit a vehicle in the city of Sidon killing two people inside and injuring two passersby who were transferred to a nearest hospital in the city.

NNA reported that one of the victims was identified as Samer al-Haj, a Hamas figure in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, located in the south of Sidon.

Local sources told Anadolu that the other victim in the vehicle was likely al-Haj's escort.

In a statement, Hamas mourned al-Haj as one of its commanders, confirming his death in an Israeli airstrike in Sidon.

The Israeli army, for its part, claimed the attack that killed al-Haj, accusing him of being behind rocket fire towards Israeli territory.

Fears have been on the rise of a potential full-blown war between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah amid a months-long exchange of cross-border fire, especially with Hezbollah threatening military retaliation after the assassination of its top commander Fouad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on July 30.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of an Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 39,700 people since last October following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar