An Israeli soldier has been killed in a clash with Lebanese troops on the border.

Battalion commander Dov Harari was 45 and came from Netanya.

Four others, including three Lebanese soldiers, were killed in the incident, which saw the worst violence on Israel’s northern border since the Second Lebanon War of 2006.

Israel said its soldiers “were on routine activity in Israeli territory” and that Lebanese forces had fired the first shots.

Lebanese officials claimed they had only fired “warning shots” because Israelis had been trying to cut down a tree in Lebanon.