Hezbollah member Hassan Ali Haidar, who was dismantling the “strange device”, was killed after a jet detonated it remotely while flying above the coastal town of Adloun, 17 kilometers (11 miles) south of Sidon, on Friday.

The Lebanese army confirmed the incident, saying Israel detonated the device "from a distance" through the aircraft.

"At 15.45 today an army intelligence patrol discovered a weird body (surveillance device) in the vicinity of the town of Adloun. During preparations to explore the object, the Israeli enemy remotely detonated it, [in] what led to the martyrdom of one of the civilians who was in close proximity to said location,” said a Friday statement by the Lebanese Armed Forces Orientation Directorate.

The location of the incident was cordoned off while an investigation got underway to look into the incident.

The spying device had reportedly been planted on some telecommunications network.

Similar surveillance devices had previously been planted by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon, a move censured by the Lebanese and officials of the United Nations.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far refused to comment on the incident.

The Israeli regime launched a major war of aggression on Hezbollah in 2006. The massive assault killed nearly 1,200 Lebanese people and 160 Zionist forces, by far the most Israel had lost in any war, eventually forcing it to submit to a ceasefire and terms demanded by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

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