With seven of its fighters—including members of an elite unit—killed by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah organization stepped up its attacks on Israel on Thursday.

There have been increasing gunfights along the Israel-Hamas border since the war started on October 7. These clashes have mostly included Israel and the Hezbollah movement, which is supported by Iran, as well as Palestinian organizations.

There are worries about a larger conflict because of the skirmishes.

Hezbollah said it carried out more than 20 attacks on Israeli military positions and claimed to have caused casualties.

In one of the attacks, it said it fired 48 Katyusha rockets at a military base at Ein Zeitim, near the town of Safed in northern Israel, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border.

That attack, using the heavy-duty Burkan missile, marked the largest rocket salvo to be fired by the Iran-backed group since violence broke out last month.

The Israeli army said that, in response to fire towards Israel, its helicopters and fighters jets had struck “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah, as well as rocket launch sites.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the Israeli army had shelled several locations in southern Lebanon in response.

Hezbollah says it has been acting in support of Hamas since the Palestinian extremist movement’s October 7 attacks on Israel, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 people taken hostage.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and its retaliatory air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 15,000 people, thousands of them children, according to the Hamas government of the Palestinian territory.