Beirut, Sep 18 (IANS): A member of Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, was killed early Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on a southern Lebanese village, according to military sources and the brigades.

The military sources said an Israeli warplane targeted a house in the village of Blida with two air-to-ground missiles, killing a member of the brigades, destroying the house, and damaging other neighbouring homes.

The sources added a civil defense vehicle has worked to transfer the dead to the Tebnine Governmental Hospital in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades mourned in a statement for one of its members, identified as Mohammed Abdallah Al-Abdallah, saying he was killed in southern Lebanon while performing his combat duty.

The military sources reported that Israeli warplanes and drones also carried out airstrikes at dawn targeting the town of Adaisseh and the municipality of Chihine, both in southern Lebanon.

In addition, Israeli artillery shelled the area of al-Labouneh in the western sector and tents in the eastern sector, causing only material damage, they noted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before.

The border tensions further mounted as deadly pager blasts allegedly carried out by Israel killed nine people and injured more than 2,800 others, including Hezbollah members, in Lebanon on Tuesday, according to tallies from the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Shortly after the explosions, Hezbollah declared it was "at the highest level of readiness to defend Lebanon and its people," blaming Israel for the "criminal attack" and vowing to retaliate.