BEIRUT 

Lebanese group Hezbollah Monday said it targeted three Israeli tanks with rockets while advancing in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the resistance group said its fighters attacked the three Merkava tanks as they advanced towards the outskirts of the town Ayta al-Shaab town.

It also reported that its fighters hit the tanks directly, with fires seen coming from them, but did not specify how many soldiers were killed inside.

Separately, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted groups of Israeli soldiers to the east of the southern town of Markaba, also attacking other sites in northern Israel with rockets and artillery.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,542 people, injuring over 4,555 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.

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 nearly 42,300 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 a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara