Israel pounds south Lebanon as Hezbollah intensifies its attacks

Israel's military said overnight that its jets hit around 100 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon in two waves of intense airstrikes.

"Approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1,000 barrels" set to be fired immediately were hit, the Israeli army said.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Israel struck the south during the night at least 52 times. It was one of the heaviest Israeli bombardments of south Lebanon since the border exchanges erupted last October.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it launched at least 17 attacks on military sites in northern Israel throughout Thursday.

The deadly device blasts that rocked Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday's barrage of air strikes came after Israel announced it was shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon where it has been trading fire with Hezbollah.

For nearly a year, Israel's firepower has been focused on Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, but its troops have also been engaged in near-daily exchanges with Hezbollah militants.

International mediators have repeatedly tried to avert a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah and staunch the regional fallout of the war in Gaza, started by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.

Hezbollah maintains its fight is in support of Hamas, and Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed Thursday that the attacks on Israel will continue as long as the war in Gaza lasts.

The cross-border exchanges of fire have killed hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens in Israel, including soldiers. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee their homes.

Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Hezbollah will pay an increasing price" as Israel tries to "ensure the safe return" of its citizens to areas near the border.

"We are at the start of a new phase in the war," he said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Israel faces "a crushing response from the resistance front" after the blasts, which wounded Tehran's ambassador in Beirut.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been scrambling to salvage efforts for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, called for restraint by all sides.

"We don't want to see any escalatory actions by any party" that would endanger the goal of a ceasefire in Gaza, he said as he joined European foreign ministers in Paris to discuss the widening crisis.

U.S. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden still believes a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah is "achievable."