Beirut, Oct 20 (IANS): Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Sunday noon when the Israeli army targeted a vehicle in the central sector of the border area in southern Lebanon, according to a statement by the Lebanese army command.

"The Israeli enemy targeted an army vehicle on the Ain Ebel-Hanine road in the south, which led to the death of three Lebanese soldiers," said the army command as reported by Xinhua news agency.

Lebanese military sources, who spoke anonymously, told Xinhua that an Israeli force fired a direct rocket shell at the vehicle.

"The Israeli warplanes carried out about 43 airstrikes on villages, towns, and open areas in southern Lebanon and 15 raids ... in eastern Lebanon," said the sources.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said that its fighters targeted Israel's Filon base, headquarters of the 210th Division in northern Israel, and Israeli army gatherings on the outskirts of several Lebanese villages with artillery and missiles.

The Israeli army has been conducting intensive attacks on Lebanon in a dangerous escalation with Hezbollah since late September.

At least eight Lebanese soldiers have been killed in Israeli attacks since the outbreak of cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on October 8, 2023, according to Lebanese figures.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since September 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 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 more than 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

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