BEIRUT, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli armored force infiltrated the southern Lebanese border village of al-Dhahira on Sunday morning, according to Lebanese military sources.

The sources told Xinhua that the Israeli force's entry was preceded by heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes on areas surrounding and overlooking the village, which is located about 400 meters from the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel.

The incursion involved five Merkava tanks and around 40 infantry troops. The Israeli soldiers reportedly demolished the village's mosque and several houses along the border, the sources said.

The Israeli unit, positioned in the eastern part of the village, came under fire from surface-to-surface missiles, the sources added. As of Sunday noon, the Israeli force remained deployed near al-Dhahira.

In a separate development, Israeli warplanes destroyed mosques in the towns of Tayr Debba, Aabbassiyeh, and Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the sources said.

The Lebanese Red Cross reported that one of its teams was targeted by Israeli bombardment during a mission in southern Lebanon. After an Israeli raid on a house in the town of Sarbin, Red Cross teams, coordinating with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, moved to the site. The house was then hit a second time, with four paramedics wounded, who were later transferred to Tebnin Hospital.

Since early October, the Israeli military has conducted targeted ground operations against Hezbollah positions near the Lebanese border while intensifying airstrikes and artillery bombardments across Lebanon, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Enditem

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