The IDF said the incident that prompted its strike on Ansar had taken place in the Ali al-Taher Ridge, a strategic high ground overlooking much of south-eastern Lebanon and one of the war's most fiercely contested positions.
A later IDF statement said Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan, who it described as a Hezbollah battalion commander in the Radwan Force unit, had been killed.
"Alongside him, several additional terrorists who were involved in advancing terror attacks against IDF soldiers were eliminated," it added.
"The strike was specifically directed at Hassan, who was a lawful target under international law, not at his family members who he used as human shields - hiding alongside them inside the military HQ," the IDF said.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a statement, defending the IDF strike.
It said the Hezbollah attack had seriously injured three soldiers and the response had struck "the Hezbollah terror headquarters which ordered the attack".
"Only later did the IDF learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound," the statement added, before saying "Hezbollah is willing to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the IDF clearly did not".
Hezbollah dismissed Netanyahu's "false claims" and said Lebanese civilians "were deliberately targeted in their homes, many of whom were reduced to human remains, followed by claims that the locations were military sites".
SOURCE/AUTHOR : BBC NEWS/Samantha Granville
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