Beirut, July 3 : Hezbollah announced in a statement that it launched three unarmed drones on a reconnaissance mission toward the Karish gas field in Eastern Mediterranean. Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military said it shot down three Hezbollah drones flying toward the Karish gas field. Israel has long claimed the Karish gas field in the Mediterranean Sea as its own property, but Lebanon expanded its claim in territorial waters, which would include at least part of the gas field. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed powerful Shiite political party and militant organisation, has threatened to use "military and logistical capacity" to prevent Israel from extracting gas from the Karish field, Xinhua news agency reported. The maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel has been growing since Israel sent a vessel operated by Energean, a London-based oil and gas production company, to the Karish field on June 5. Lebanon is seeking to revive indirect negotiations with Israel to determine their maritime border that began in 2020 but have mostly halted since Lebanon expanded its claim to include at least part of the Karish field in April 2021. /IANS