Hezbollah-Israel clashes: Latest developments

Tensions have soared in the past week as Iran and its allies vowed revenge for the killing, blamed on Israel, of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and after an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah's top military commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, with the group claiming cross-border attacks and low-flying Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier over Beirut.

The Israeli military said some 30 "projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon" after sirens sounded in northern Israel and the Golan, while regional councils in the north urged residents to stay close to shelters and avoid public gatherings in open spaces.

Hezbollah claimed several other attacks on Israeli positions on Tuesday, including one with "explosive-laden drones" targeting a barracks north of the coastal town of Akka.

At least 19 people including six soldiers were wounded, emergency officials said. Most were hurt by an Israeli interceptor rocket that missed and hit the ground.

Low-flying Israeli military aircraft broke the sound barrier over Beirut Tuesday ahead of a speech by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Iran and Hezbollah are "obliged to respond" to Israel for the killings of Haniyeh and Shukur, "whatever the consequences", Nasrallah said in the televised speech, marking a week since the strike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

The cross-border violence since October has killed some 556 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.

Diplomatic efforts have gone into overdrive seeking to avert a regional conflagration and full-blown conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, who last went to war in the summer of 2006.