Three Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded in an overnight incident in southern Lebanon, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 11 people in the area, Lebanese authorities said.

Netanyahu’s office said Hezbollah attacked Israeli troops in the Ali Taher ridge area, which Israel describes as a security zone, and accused the group of violating the ceasefire. It said the Israeli military responded by striking a Hezbollah compound in the town of Ansar.

“This morning Hezbollah violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. It added that the attack “seriously injured three of our soldiers”.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency said the subsequent Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people. Seven people, including three children, were killed when a house on the outskirts of Ansar was struck, while four others were killed in a separate strike on Deir al-Zahrani. The ministry reported 19 wounded in the two attacks.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the Ali Taher and Ansar areas in response to an action against its troops. It later said the Ansar strike killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, described by the military as a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.

Israel also acknowledged that civilians were killed in the Ansar strike. Netanyahu’s office said the military learned only afterwards that civilians were inside the compound, while the Israeli military claimed they were family members of the targeted commander. Those claims could not be independently verified.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the strikes, saying the seven people killed in Ansar were not military infrastructure and that the children and women among the dead were not military targets. President Joseph Aoun said the attacks sent “a clear message” about the negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah later said the Israeli strikes would receive an “appropriate” response, while calling on Lebanese authorities to halt direct negotiations with Israel. The group did not immediately confirm that it had carried out the attack that Israel said wounded its soldiers.

The latest escalation comes despite a ceasefire that took effect on 20 June. Israel and Lebanon announced a US-mediated framework agreement on 26 June outlining a phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon linked to Hezbollah’s disarmament. Hezbollah was not a party to the agreement and has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Israel has continued to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire, saying they target Hezbollah infrastructure and respond to threats against its forces and civilians. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has opposed disarmament before an Israeli withdrawal.

The 15 August strikes are the deadliest reported in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire began, according to the Associated Press.