Beirut, Jul 19 (IANS): Five people were killed and 18 others injured in Israeli airstrikes targeting three villages in the central sector of the border area in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Xinhua news agency, said that the casualties resulted from five Israeli air raids on the villages of Safad, Chaqra, and Majdal Selm, which destroyed seven homes and damaged 25 others on Thursday.

They added that several teams from the Civil Defense, Islamic Health Authority, and International Committee of the Red Cross rushed to the targeted areas to transport the bodies and wounded to nearby hospitals in southern Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lebanese security sources told Xinhua that a Hezbollah military official named Habib Maatouq, who is from the southern city of Nabatieh, was killed during the air strikes.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced in statements that it launched an airstrike with a squadron of armed drones on the Filon base, the headquarters of the brigades of the 210th division and its warehouses in northern Israel.

Also, the Lebanese army monitored the launch of about 50 surface-to-surface missiles and several drones fired from Lebanon to northern Israel, according to Lebanese military sources.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have been rising since October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by launching airstrikes and firing artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.