Three killed as Israel and Hezbollah clash on Lebanese border
A spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) urged "maximum restraint to prevent an escalation".
The peacekeeper was killed close to the disputed Shebaa Farms area, where an Israeli convoy was earlier hit by anti-tank missiles, killing two soldiers.
The Israeli military responded by firing shells into southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it carried out the missile attack in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed six of its fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general in the Syrian Golan Heights 10 days ago.
'Tragic incident'
The cross-border violence erupted when Israeli military vehicles were hit at about 11:35 (09:35 GMT) near Mt Dov, in the Shebaa Farms area, a tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.
The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed, identifying them as Maj Yochai Kalangel and Staff Sgt Dor Chaim Nini. Seven others others were injured, two of them moderately. But the military rejected a report by Lebanon's official National News Agency that one had been captured.
Just over an hour later, mortars hit an Israeli military position on Mt Hermon, prompting troops to close the site and evacuate civilians from a ski resort in the area.
The Israeli military said it responded to the attacks with combined aerial and ground strikes on Hezbollah operational positions along the border. Lebanese officials said at least 50 artillery shells were fired at the villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba.
Later, Unifil announced that one of its peacekeepers had been killed.
"We are looking into the circumstances of this tragic incident," spokesman Andrea Tenenti said, without specifying the source of the fire.
He also declined to give the peacekeeper's nationality, but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed on Twitter his "great sadness at the death of a Spanish soldier in Lebanon".
BBC
