Israel launches 'large-scale' strikes in Lebanon

The Israeli military said on Monday it would launch more air strikes targeting eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and warned residents to move away from Hezbollah sites in the area.

"We are preparing for a large-scale and targeted strike in Bekaa Valley," military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a media briefing, adding that residents should "distance themselves" from Hezbollah sites "for your safety and protection".

"Hezbollah stores its strategic weaponry in civilian buildings and uses the population as human shields," Hagari said.

"The houses in Bekaa have rockets and drones. We will attack them before they pose a threat to the residents of Israel."

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon killed 100 people including children on Monday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in the largest cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on 7 October.

War began when Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out the worst-ever attack on Israel, with Iran-backed groups around the region, chiefly Hezbollah, increasingly drawn into the violence.

On Monday, Israel said it had hit more than 300 Hezbollah sites with dozens of strikes, while Hezbollah said that it had targeted three sites in northern Israel.

The strikes on Lebanon, which also wounded more than 400 people according to the health ministry, were the deadliest in nearly a year of violence along the border with Israel.

"Enemy raids on southern towns and villages since this morning... killed 100 and injured more than 400," the health ministry said in a statement, adding that "children, women and paramedics" were among the dead and wounded.

World powers have implored Israel and Hezbollah to pull back from the brink of all-out war, with the focus of violence shifting sharply from Israel's southern front with Gaza to its northern border with Lebanon in recent days.

"We sleep and wake up to bombardment... That's what our life has become," said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the south Lebanon village of Zawtar.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told people in Lebanon to avoid potential targets linked to Hezbollah as strikes would "go on for the near future".

Hagari said Israel's military "will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon".

He told civilians "to immediately move out of harm's way for their own safety".

Hezbollah, a powerful political and military force in Lebanon, says it is acting in its fight along Lebanon's southern border with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

In divided Lebanon, large parts of the south and east of the country, as well as the southern suburbs of capital city Beirut, are seen as strongholds of Hezbollah, where the group has historically wielded influence and built up services for its Shiite Muslim support base.

Ahead of the annual General Assembly in New York, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned of Lebanon becoming "another Gaza" and said it was "clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire" there.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported "more than 80 air strikes in half an hour" early Monday targeting the south of the country, as well as intense raids in the Bekaa Valley to the east.

The education minister said schools in targeted areas would close for two days.

Explosions around the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon triggered flashes of fire and sent smoke billowing into the sky.