The Israeli army said Thursday it was striking Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, shortly after it had warned that the militant group could expand launches of projectiles across Israel.
"A short while ago, the IDF began striking Hezbollah launch sites in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon including Bint Jbeil, a symbolic town where Hezbollah said earlier it was engaging with Israeli soldiers.
An AFP correspondent saw first responders looking for survivors at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine.
After the Israeli strikes, air raid sirens sounded in several parts of northern Israel, including the city of Haifa, but there were no reports of injuries and the army's Home Front Command has cleared people to leave their shelters.
Earlier on Thursday, more than 20 rocket alerts sounded through the morning in communities near the Lebanon border.
AFP footage from the border area showed long rocket trails in the sky and plumes of smoke signalling interceptions.
Calls have been mounting for the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran -- agreed late on Tuesday -- to be extended to Israel's war with Hezbollah, which Israel has said is not included.
Israel on Wednesday unleashed what it said was its "largest coordinated strike" on Lebanon since the war began, killing more than 300 people and wounding over 1,000, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
Hours later, Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had fired rockets towards Israel in response to what it called a violation of the US-Iran truce.
Hezbollah Suffered “Heavy Blow”
Israel's army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir visited ground troops in southern Lebanon on Thursday, telling them Hezbollah suffered a "heavy blow" from its major bombardment targeting the Iran-backed group a day earlier.
"While you are operating and advancing at the front, yesterday we delivered a heavy and powerful blow to Hezbollah. They left Dahiyeh and moved to other locations from which they managed the fight," he told soldiers, according to a military transcript, referring to a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
"The objective defined for you is the removal of the direct threat to the residents of the north (of Israel), which you are carrying out on the ground."
Israeli strikes pummelled Lebanon on Wednesday, killing over 300 people and wounding over 1,100, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement Thursday that "more than 200 (Hezbollah) terrorists were eliminated" the previous day.
"Hezbollah is isolated within Lebanon and cut off from its strategic artery in Iran. The Lebanese government understands more than ever the magnitude of the problem posed by the presence of a radical, fanatical terrorist organization on its soil," he added.
According to the Israeli army, Zamir visited troops stationed on the outskirts of the village of Bint Jbeil, famous for a fierce battle with Hezbollah in 2006.
The Iran-backed group said Thursday its fighters were engaged in point-blank clashes with Israeli forces in the the same village.
Located five kilometres (three miles) from the border, the hamlet holds symbolic signifigance for Hezbollah.
It is where its slain chief Hassan Nasrallah delivered a landmark speech in 2000 marking the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon after nearly two decades of military occupation.
With AFP
Comments