As it engages in heated battles with Hezbollah in a number of Lebanese border villages, Israel has bombed at least five of the six principal bridges across a river dividing the country's south.

Military experts agree the strikes are an attempt to cut off the region south of the Litani river from the rest of Lebanon, but are divided on whether the move will change the course of the fighting.

Mayors of several towns in southern Lebanon said the Israeli military had ordered them to force out the displaced who had escaped their Shia-majority towns, considered Hezbollah strongholds, during the war with Israel.

Since Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war following Iran-backed Hezbollah's March 2 rocket fire on Israel, more than a million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes.

An Israeli strike on Hazmieh east of Beirut killed at least one person, Lebanon's health ministry said, the second strike on the residential Christian area in the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military said around the same time that it had "struck an IRGC Quds Force terrorist in Beirut", referring to the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Hezbollah targeted Monday Israeli troops and bases in northern Israel and in southern Lebanon with attack drones, rockets and advanced missiles.

The group said in separate statements that it targeted troops near Alma al Shaab, al-Taybeh, Markaba, Dhayra, and Maroun al-Ras with attack drones, rockets and advanced missiles. It also targeted several times al-Manara, Metula and the Zari'it barracks in north Israel, and troops inside Lebanon near al-Naqoura's municipality.

President Joseph Aoun met Monday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The talks stressed the importance of "national unity and solidarity", as Berri said he is "reassured by the presence of the president."

A strike on a bridge Monday in the southern village of Qaaqaaiyet al-Jisr cut a main link between the southern city of Nabatiyeh and al-Hujair valley region farther south.

Israel also struck two bridges in Qasmiyeh and Matariyeh and another in Burj Rahhal linking the city of Tyre to Sidon. Other strikes on south Lebanon hit al-Qlayleh, al-Henniyeh, Jwaya, al-Tiri, Zrarieh, Hamoul, al-Bayyada, Shehabiyeh, Tebnine, Majdal Selem, Shaqra, Ainata, al-Khiam, Maroun al-Rass, and al-Rihan.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said that members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards are commanding Hezbollah's operations in the group's ongoing war against Israel.

In an interview Sunday with the Al Hadath network, Salam once again lashed out at Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into the Middle East war by firing rockets on Israel.

The Israeli military has announced it was expanding its ground campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning of a lengthy operation, after Beirut condemned what it called Israel's flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty.

Israeli forces were ordered Sunday to destroy bridges they said were used by the Hezbollah to cross the Litani River, and Lebanese official media reported Israeli raids in the south.

The Israeli military on Monday said its own artillery fire killed an Israeli civilian a day earlier near the northern border with Lebanon, where its forces are fighting Hezbollah.

After opening an investigation, the military said "the initial findings suggest that the Israeli civilian was killed by IDF artillery fire conducted to support IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon".

Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir has approved plans for the "next phase" of the war against Hezbollah, saying the battle against the Lebanese Iran-backed group "has only just begun."