The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it launched several attacks on Sunday against Israeli military sites in the north of the Jewish state, causing several casualties among Israeli forces.
BEIRUT, June 23 (Xinhua) — The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it launched several attacks on Israeli military sites in the north of the Jewish state on Sunday, causing several casualties among Israeli forces.
In a statement, Hezbollah said the attacks, which were carried out using drones and targeted the Israeli army headquarters in Beit Hillel and Ayelet HaShahar, were intended to respond to the assassination of a leader of the Islamic Group, a Lebanese Sunni Islamist political party.
Ayman Hachem Ghazme, a leader of the Islamic Group, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in eastern Lebanon on Saturday, a Lebanese military source told Xinhua. The Sunni party’s military wing has fired missiles at Israel since the start of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Amid escalating tensions with Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced Tuesday that it had approved operational plans for an offensive against Hezbollah. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned that no place in Israel would be safe from his party’s missiles in the event of war.
Lebanese military sources informed Xinhua that Israeli drones and warplanes carried out three raids on four towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Sunday. They added that Israeli artillery bombarded eight towns and villages in the eastern and western sectors of southern Lebanon with around 35 shells.
The sources said Lebanese army positions on the border had spotted several drones crossing the border from Lebanon into northern Israel.
On Saturday, Hezbollah released a video showing aerial images of several Israeli areas and cities filmed by its reconnaissance drones.
The video highlights various critical Israeli targets, such as the Haifa oil refineries, Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, the port of Ashdod, military bases in the Upper Galilee and the headquarters of the army and security forces.■
 Lebanese Hezbollah claims drone attacks on Israeli military sites – Xinhua){kind=link}