BEIRUT, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Hezbollah group in Lebanon said it launched on Sunday several attacks against Israeli military sites in northern Israel, causing casualties among the Israeli forcesepicpinball.

In a statement, Hezbollah said the attacks, which were carried out with drones and targeted the Israeli military headquarters in Beit Hillel and Ayelet HaShahar, were to retaliate against the killing of a leader of the Islamic Group, a Sunni Islamist political party in Lebanon.

Ayman Hashem Ghazme, a field leader of the Islamic Group, was killed on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle in eastern Lebanon, a Lebanese military source told Xinhua. The armed wing of the Sunni party has been firing missiles into Israel since the onset of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As tensions with Hezbollah escalated, the Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had approved operational plans for an offensive against Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that no place in Israel would be safe from his party's missiles in case of war.

Lebanese military sources informed Xinhua that Israeli drones and warplanes conducted three raids on four towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Sunday, and Israeli artillery shelled eight towns and villages in the eastern and western sectors of southern Lebanon with about 35 shells.

Sources added that Lebanese army positions at the border observed multiple drones crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.

On Saturday, Hezbollah released a video featuring aerial footage of Israeli areas and cities collected by its reconnaissance drones.

The footage highlighted various critical Israeli targets, including oil refineries in Haifa, Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Ashdod port, military bases in the Upper Galilee, and army and security headquarters, among others.■