The Israeli army said on Monday it had killed a senior field commander with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force in a targeted airstrike in Lebanon overnight.
Ali Ahmed Hassin and two other fighters with the pro-Iran armed group were killed in the southern Lebanon town of Sultaniyah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
Hezbollah confirmed the death of the commander, but gave no further details.
The IDF said Hassin's position was comparable to that of a brigade commander and that he was behind recent attacks on civilian sites in northern Israel.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the massacre by Hamas in Israel on October 7, there have been daily, sometimes deadly, confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah. The tit-for-tat cross-border attacks have fuelled fears of a second war front.
Sunday marked six months since Israel launched its devastating air and ground war on the Gaza Strip in response to the massacre by terrorists from Hamas and other militant groups that left some 1,200 people dead and more than 200 others taken hostage.
Israel on Monday accused Hamas of firing rockets at Israel from a "humanitarian zone" in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli fighter jets targeted and destroyed three Hamas launching pads in the zone located in the west of the city of Khan Younis, the army said.
Hamas has yet to comment on the attack.
Israel announced on Sunday a major drawdown of troops from Khan Younis, the second-biggest city in the Gaza Strip.
Israel media reported that with the departure of the 98th commando mission from Khan Younis there were no longer actively manoeuvring troops in southern Gaza, raising questions about Israel's next steps in the war.
The IDF said the troops needed time to "recuperate and prepare for future operations."
Despite strong international opposition, Israel has been maintaining for weeks that it is planning a large-scale incursion into Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that has yet see ground forces.
Much of Gaza lies in ruins as fears of famine grow and Israel faces blistering condemnation of its actions, including for attacks on health facilities and the recent airstrike that killed seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry puts the death toll in Gaza at over 33,000.
More than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah from fighting elsewhere in the sealed-off coastal area.
Over the weekend, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, and a delegation from Hamas arrived in Cairo to resume indirect talks on ceasefire deal that would facilitate an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Weeks of negotiations - brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt - have seen hopes of a breakthrough repeatedly dashed.
Broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on Monday, citing Hamas circles, that the Israeli delegation had not responded to any of Hamas' latest demands. The report said representatives of the Islamist group had left Cairo for consultations with its leaders.
Israeli media, however, reported that both sides had shown more flexibility. There was no official information on the current state of negotiations.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid told Israeli radio on Monday that a deal was on the table. "It will be a deal we don't like, but we have to do it because we have to bring [the hostages] home," he said.
During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its facilities.
Tens of thousands of Israelis flooded the streets in multiple protests over the weekend to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to secure the hostages' release.