ANKARA 

Three of Hezbollah's fighters were killed in clashes with the Israeli army, the Lebanon-based group said in a statement on Friday.

The group identified the fighters as Qassem Saleh Harqous, 20, Hassan Wissam Harqous, 19, and Aqeel Qassem Gharib, 34, who were killed "on the road to Jerusalem," referring to the group members fighting Israel in support of Palestinians facing the onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The new fatalities brought the total number of Hezbollah fighters killed in combat with Israeli forces since last October to 424, according to an Anadolu tally.

Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, and after the July 30 killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble, and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara