Lebanon: Israeli forces have launched limited incursions in Lebanon, the United States said on Monday, as Israel vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah and sealed part of the border after killing the Iran-backed militants' leader.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the battle was not over even after the massive Friday strike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, dealing the group a seismic blow.
World leaders have urged diplomacy and de-escalation, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying: "We do not want any sort of ground invasion."
Israeli officials "have informed us that they are currently conducting... limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border", US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists.
Hezbollah fighters were "ready if Israel decides to enter by land", deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a first televised address since Nasrallah's death.
Troops 'repositioning
Lebanon's national army, dwarfed by Hezbollah's military power, was "repositioning" troops farther from the border, a military official told AFP.
And United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon were no longer able to conduct patrols "given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth", Dujarric said.
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's main weapons supplier, earlier on Monday indicated he opposes an Israeli ground operation.
"We should have a ceasefire now," he said.
Nasrallah killing not 'final' step: Israel
Israel launched earlier this month a wave of deadly air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon, and on Friday bombed Nasrallah in Beirut.
In northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, Gallant said that "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."
Israel's strikes on Lebanon have killed hundreds of people over the past week and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes.
Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones and some missiles at Israel over the same period, causing some injuries but no deaths.
'Largest displacement'
Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said more than 1,000 people have been killed since September 17.
UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon", while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said up to one million people may have been uprooted, in potentially the "largest displacement movement" in Lebanon's history.
Israel said it carried out strikes on Sunday targeting Iran-backed Huthis in Yemen, which rebel media on Monday said killed six people, after they launched a missile at Israel.
World leaders have called for a de-escalation, while some governments have urged their citizens - and in some cases, embassy staff or their families - to leave Lebanon.
Beirut strike
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.
On Monday, a drone strike hit a building in the Kola district in central Beirut, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members.
The strike, the first in the centre of the city in years, sparked panic, with 41-year-old resident Mohammed al-Hoss saying "the kids were in shock" after his house was damaged.
"We are with Gaza and support the Palestinian cause, but our country cannot cope with us going to war," he said.
"Our country is in a wretched state. They (Israel) finished with Gaza and they have come to Lebanon."
Lebanon's health ministry also reported the strike, saying it had killed four people and wounded four others. Israel has yet to comment.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas later announced that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, had been killed along with his wife and two children in another strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military confirmed it had "eliminated" Sharif in a strike.
Around Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed 105 people on Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said Saturday that 1,030 people including 87 children had been killed since September 16.
UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon", while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said up to one million people may have been uprooted, in potentially the "largest displacement movement" in Lebanon's history.
Yemen strikes
The violence in Lebanon has raised fears of a much wider conflagration in the region.
On Monday, the Israeli army said it "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory".
Israel said it also carried out strikes in Yemen on Sunday, targeting Iran-backed Huthi rebel positions.
Houthi media reports said those strikes killed four people and wounded 33.
The raids in Yemen came a day after the Huthis said they launched a missile at Israel's Ben Gurion airport, trying to hit it as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning from New York.
The Israeli military has said its operations in Lebanon aim to eliminate Hezbollah's leadership and capacity to attack Israel.
Hezbollah on Monday confirmed that Israel also killed Nabil Qaouq, a member of the group's central council, in a Beirut strike on Saturday.
Lebanon began a three-day national mourning period for Nasrallah on Monday, with flags flying at half-mast.
Iran has said Nasrallah's killing would bring about Israel's "destruction", though the foreign ministry said Monday it would not deploy any fighters to confront Israel.
In Israel, some had mixed feelings about the Hezbollah chief's killing.
"Nasrallah was responsible for the deaths of many Israelis, so it is good news," said Matan Sofer, 24, in the northern town of Rosh Pina.
"But do we risk it getting worse, who knows?"
Calls for halt
World leaders have called for a de-escalation.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot met with the Lebanese premier in Beirut Monday, and said his government sought "an immediate halt" in the strikes.
He is the first high-level foreign diplomat to visit since the Israeli strikes intensified.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel's top arms supplier, said Sunday a wider war "really has to be avoided".
In Gaza, AFP journalists said the number of air strikes across the territory has dropped significantly in recent days, particularly since Nasrallah's killing.
Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,615 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
