TEL AVIV/BEIRUT: At least 10 rockets were fired towards Israel from southern Lebanon on Friday, the Israeli military said, drawing Israeli artillery fire as cross-border hostilities increased amid tensions with Iran.

Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system, its military said in a statement, and the rest fell in open areas. There were no reports of damage or casualties, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rockets.

Israel's Army Radio reported that the military fired shells and artillery towards parts of south Lebanon under the control of the heavily armed Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.

Air raid sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, and in the Golan Heights, part of the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

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A Lebanese security source said the rockets were launched from the area of al-Arqoub, near the Lebanese town of Shebaa.

It was the third day of cross-border hostilities that threaten a period of calm prevailing since 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah fought a one-month war.

Rockets fired from Lebanon two days ago drew retaliatory Israeli shelling and air strikes, in an escalation of cross-border hostilities amid friction with Iran.