The soldiers, who were hit by debris, were from the Malaysian Battalion 850-12 (Malbatt 850-12) team which left for Lebanon yesterday.

Reuters reported that an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese city of Sidon killed three Lebanese citizens and wounded three Lebanese soldiers as well as four Malaysian personnel from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).

The Lebanese army said the strike targeted a car while it was passing a checkpoint, which led to the deaths of the three Lebanese who were inside it.

The wounded soldiers had been serving at the checkpoint, while the Unifil personnel hit were in a vehicle of the UN peacekeeping force that was passing through the checkpoint at the time, according to an army statement.

The first batch of Malbatt 850-12 left to Lebanon from the Subang Air Base yesterday as part of the country’s agreement with UN for the peacekeeping mission.

Khaled yesterday said the Malbatt 850-11 team, currently in southern Lebanon, was reported to be safe.

He said that while the ministry was concerned about airstrikes, he noted there had been no such attacks recently.

“Moreover, the area under the responsibility of our personnel is slightly elevated and not directly on the border between Lebanon and Israel,” he said, Bernama reported.

Malaysia is part of a coalition of 48 troop-contributing countries in Unifil, which is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in south Lebanon that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.