JERUSALEM/BEIRUT — Hezbollah militants targeted Israeli soldiers near the Lebanese border village of Labbouneh with artillery shells and rockets on Wednesday (Oct 9), the group said in a statement, a day after Israel said it had killed two successors to Hezbollah's slain leader.

The group, which has been launching rockets against Israel for a year in parallel with the Gaza war and is now fighting it in ground clashes, said it had pushed the troops back.

The Israeli military said three of its troops were severely injured on Tuesday and Wednesday during combat in southern Lebanon. Sirens sounded in northern Israel on Wednesday morning, while Israel renewed bombing of Beirut's southern suburbs overnight.

The conflict in Lebanon has escalated dramatically in recent weeks as Israel carried out a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah leaders and launched ground operations into southern Lebanon that expanded further this week.

The bombardment has left more than 2,100 people dead in Lebanon, most of them in the last two weeks, and displaced roughly 1.2 million across the country.

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