Despite international calls for de-escalation, Israel earlier vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah and sealed part of the border after killing the Iran-backed group’s leader.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the battle was not over even after the massive strike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, dealing the group a seismic blow.
“We will use all the means that may be required … from the air, from the sea, and on land” to restore calm, he said.
The killing of Nasrallah “is an important step, but it is not the final one”, said the defence minister.
Gallant had told local council heads in northern Israel on Monday that the next phase of the war along Lebanon’s southern border would begin soon and would support the aim of bringing home Israelis who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.
“EVERYONE IS AFRAID”
Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct 7 which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The border clashes rapidly escalated this month, leaving people across the region fearful of even more violence to come.
Israel said earlier this month that it was shifting its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border.
On Monday the army declared an area of the border strip a “closed military zone”.
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon have killed hundreds of people over the past week and forced up to a million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese officials.
Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones and some missiles at Israel over the same period, causing some injuries but no deaths.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused arch-foe Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups, of plunging “our region deeper … into war”.
“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu warned.
Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any fighters to confront Israel.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a ceasefire based on a recent US-French proposal, urging “an end to the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”.
Most of Israel’s strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the group’s main bastion.
Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, was killed along with his wife and two children in a strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Sharif.
On Monday, an Israeli strike hit a building in central Beirut, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members.
The strike, the first in the city centre in years, sparked panic.
Central Beirut resident Kahier Bannout, 42, said it was “supposed to be a safe area – not a war zone”.
