Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies

Tel Aviv says two soldiers killed in Lebanon

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM:

Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel's third-largest city Haifa and Israel looked poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon on Monday, one year after the devastating Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Hezbollah, an ally in Lebanon of Hamas in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with "Fadi 1" missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 65km (40 miles) away. The armed group later said it also targeted areas north of Haifa with missiles.

Israel's military said around 135 projectiles had entered Israeli territory on Monday as of 5pm (1400 GMT). Ten people were reported injured in the Haifa area and two others further south in central Israel.

Israel's military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and two Israeli soldiers were killed, taking the Israeli military death toll inside Lebanon to 11.

Lebanon's health ministry reported dozens of deaths, including 10 firefighters killed in an airstrike on a municipal building in the border area, and 22 other people killed in air attacks on Sunday.

Around 2,000 Lebanese have been killed since Hezbollah began firing at Israel a year ago in solidarity with Hamas, most of them in the past few weeks. The Israeli military has described its ground operation in Lebanon as "localised, limited and targeted" but it has steadily increased in scale since it began last week.

Israel's military said soldiers from its 91st Division moved into southern Lebanon after a year of operations in northern Israel.

Also on Monday, Israel within the space of an hour carried out air strikes on 120 targets in southern Lebanon, including against Radwan special forces units, Hezbollah's missile force and its intelligence directorate. "This operation follows a series of strikes aimed at degrading Hezbollah's command, control and firing capabilities, as well as assisting ground forces in achieving their operational goals," the military said in a statement.

An Israeli military statement said five rockets were launched towards Haifa, a major Mediterranean port, from Lebanon and interceptors were fired at them. The statement said 15 other rockets were fired at Tiberias in northern Israel, some of which were shot down. Israeli media said five more rockets hit the area later.

A surface-to-air missile fired at central Israel from Yemen was also intercepted, the military said. The Houthi movement, which controls northern Yemen, has attacked Israel during the past year in what it says is solidarity with Palestinians under attack in Gaza.

Hamas said it targeted Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo, setting off sirens.

Conflict spreads

Israeli airstrikes have displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon, and Israel's intensified bombing campaign has left many Lebanese worried their country will experience the vast scale of destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel.

Israeli forces also issued a warning in Arabic to beachgoers and boat users to avoid a stretch of the Lebanese coast, saying it would soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.

The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has largely flattened the densely populated enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.