BEIRUT 

The Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday that its fighters destroyed two Israeli tanks in southern Lebanon’s Labbouneh Heights, inflicting casualties on the soldiers.

According to separate statements, the Hezbollah fighters used two guided missiles to target two Merkava tanks in the Labbouneh Heights, causing them to burn and killing or injuring soldiers.

The Israeli army has yet to comment on the Hezbollah statement.

Late Wednesday, Hezbollah also said it killed and injured Israeli soldiers in direct clashes near the vicinity of Qaouzah town in southern Lebanon.

Since Israel began ground incursions into southern Lebanon in early October, Hezbollah has repeatedly declared that it will attack, confront, and kill the invading Israeli soldiers.

Israel has launched massive airstrikes in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23. However, such attacks killed more than 1,500 ordinary people and displaced over a million.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara