JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The IDF announced on Saturday night that an IDF officer and two combat soldiers were seriously wounded in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon.

The military said the wounded were evacuated to hospital for treatment and that their families had been notified. Later, the IDF updated that one of the three wounded had improved and is now listed in moderate condition.

According to the military, the incident occurred at approximately 2:30 a.m. early Saturday, when an explosive-laden Hezbollah drone struck near a Yahalom combat engineering unit operating as part of the Commando Brigade’s combat team in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area of southern Lebanon.

In response to the attack, the IDF carried out a precision airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Ansar, killing Ali Hassan, whom the military identified as a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

According to the IDF, Hassan was responsible for directing terrorist activity against Israeli forces operating in the security zone in southern Lebanon.

The military said members of Hassan’s family were present inside the command post during the strike and were also injured. It emphasized that they were not the intended targets.

“The target of the strike was the terrorist Ali Hassan, who was a lawful military objective under international law,” the IDF said in a statement. “The terrorist used his family as human shields and concealed himself with them inside the military headquarters.”

Earlier in the day, in an unusual move, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement in English before the IDF’s official announcement, saying Hezbollah had violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli forces operating in the security zone in southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials said the decision to release the statement during Shabbat was prompted by strong reactions in Lebanon following the Israeli strikes and the need to present Israel’s position quickly to the international community.

Lebanese media reported that 11 people were killed in the Israeli strikes. Israel maintained that Hezbollah had deliberately positioned civilians inside the military compound in an effort to use them as human shields and shift responsibility for any civilian casualties onto Israel.

The IDF also reported a separate incident in southern Lebanon in which paratroopers killed two terrorists who crossed the Blue Line and approached Israeli troops in a manner deemed threatening.