A source close to Hezbollah said a senior commander was killed Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Lebanon's south, the group's second such casualty in recent weeks.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.

"A Hezbollah commander responsible for one of three sectors in south Lebanon was killed" in an "Israeli strike on a car in Tyre", the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said "an enemy drone targeted a car" in Tyre, a coastal city around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border.

The Hezbollah member killed Wednesday had the same ranking as Taleb Abdallah, another commander killed in an Israeli strike last month, the source close to the group added.

A Lebanese military source had described Abdallah as the "most important" Hezbollah member to be killed since the hostilities began.

That strike, in the southern town of Jouaiyya, prompted Hezbollah to intensify its strikes on Israeli targets, firing barrages of rockets across the border in the days after the attack.

More than eight months of cross-border violence has killed at least 494 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including almost 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed.