Hezbollah official visiting his girlfriend was indeed targeted by Israel on Sunday in Ain Saade

A Hezbollah official was indeed the target of an Israeli strike Sunday on an apartment in a predominantly Christian residential area northeast of Beirut, where he regularly visited because he was in a romantic relationship with a resident, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday.

This man escaped the strike in Ain Saade, which instead killed a local official from the Lebanese Forces (LF), a Christian party opposed to Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as his wife and a second woman.

The judicial source said the man targeted was "a Hezbollah official" who "was in a romantic relationship with a woman living in the building that was targeted and went briefly to the site each day (...) before leaving again."

This woman's testimony helped identify the Hezbollah official, the source added.

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The Israeli army said it had struck a "terrorist target" and said it was reviewing the incident "after reports of casualties among Lebanese civilians not involved in the fighting."

The Lebanese army said there was a person "leaving the building on a motorcycle immediately after the attack," adding that it was investigating "to determine this person's identity."

Hezbollah had drawn Lebanon into the regional war on March 2 by launching an attack against Israel to avenge the death of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.