ANKARA 

Five Hezbollah's fighters were killed in clashes with the Israeli army, the Lebanon-based group said in separate statements on Friday.

The group identified the fighters as Qassem Saleh Harqous, Hassan Wissam Harqous, Akil Ghorayyeb, Mohammad Najm and Hussein Shqair, who were all killed "on the road to Jerusalem," meaning fighting with Israel in support of Palestinians facing the onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The new fatalities brought the total number of Hezbollah fighters killed in combat with Israeli forces since last October to 426, according to an Anadolu tally.

Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, and after the July 30 killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble, and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi and Ahmed Asmar in Ankara