Beirut, Sep 8 (IANS): Hezbollah has said that it had attacked several settlements and sites in northern Israel with Katyusha rockets and artillery shells in response to Israel's attacks in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese armed group said on Saturday in three separate statements that it had shelled the Israeli military base on Mount Neria with volleys of Katyusha rockets, attacked Israeli soldiers around the Manot settlement with rockets, and intercepted an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile in Lebanon's Bekaa region, Xinhua news agency reported.

It also added that it had attacked "the main intelligence headquarters at the Mishar base, as well as the sites of Misgav Am, Al-Alam, Samaqa, and Hadab Yaroun, with artillery shells and Katyusha rockets".

Lebanese military sources told Xinhua news agency that the Lebanese army had monitored the launch of about 40 surface-to-surface missiles from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel on Saturday.

Some of these missiles were intercepted by Israel, while many exploded in the airspace over southeastern Lebanon.

Three personnel of the Lebanese Civil Defence were killed and two others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike on southern Lebanon, according to the sources.

The sources also said that Israeli warplanes and drones carried out six raids on Saturday on four border towns and villages in southern Lebanon, and Israeli artillery shelled nine villages and towns in the eastern and central sectors with 35 shells, causing several fires and material damage.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in support of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.