Israeli military launches ground invasion, targets Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

Israel's widely expected ground invasion of Lebanon appeared to be getting underway early on Tuesday as its military said troops had begun "limited" raids against Hezbollah targets in the border area.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Telegram that its targets were located in villages close to the border that posed "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel." It said the air force and artillery were supporting ground forces with "precise strikes."

"The IDF is continuing to operate to achieve the goals of the war and is doing everything necessary to defend the citizens of Israel and return the citizens of northern Israel to their homes," the statement said.

Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters Monday that troops had pulled back from positions along Lebanon's southern border with Israel to about five kilometres north of the border.

Amal Al-Hourani, mayor of Jdeidet Marjayoun, a Christian-majority Lebanese village less than 10 km from the border, told Reuters that two locals had received calls apparently from the Israeli army telling them to evacuate the area.

About 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel because of near-daily attacks by the Iran-backed group that began after Hamas-led militants from Gaza launched a deadly attack on southern Israel nearly a year ago.

The Israeli military declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as a closed military zone and said entry was prohibited.

The ground invasion follows Israel's deadly detonation of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and two weeks of airstrikes, including one on Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, one of the heaviest blows to the group in decades.

The intensive airstrikes have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.

In the past 24 hours, at least 95 people had been killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon's southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry said early Tuesday.

An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Tuesday targeted Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, according to two Palestinian security officials. His fate was unknown.

The strike hit a building in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, the sources said. It marked the first strike on Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp since cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out nearly a year ago.

It marked the first strike on the largest of several Palestinian camps in Lebanon