Lebanon: Israel 'not looking for war' but warns Hezbollah its army 'is at full readiness'

Israel will do "whatever is necessary" to push Hezbollah from its northern border with Lebanon, its military spokesman has said.

At least 492 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Monday - including 35 children, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Israel attacked hundreds of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's deadliest day in decades, with 58 women also reported killed and 1,645 people wounded.

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Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel was "not looking for wars" but that its army is in "full readiness" when asked if the conflict could escalate.

Civilian casualties are a "tragedy", he said, but insisted Israel "makes vast efforts not to hit civilians and make every effort to mitigate harm to civilians".

"Among those killed were a large number of Hezbollah terrorists who were next to the weapons that we targeted," added the spokesman.

After Hezbollah was rocked by pager and radio explosions last week, widely believed to be the work of Israeli intelligence, its military warned people to evacuate areas where it claims the group is storing weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country faced "complicated days" as it stepped up attacks against Hezbollah - which has also been firing rockets into Israel and caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

"I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north - that is exactly what we are doing," Mr Netanyahu said.

Israel's military has also announced it is targeting the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and defence minister Yoav Gallant said its action in the country would continue until "we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes".

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has vowed to fight on until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel's military said it hit around 800 targets connected to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley on Monday.

It also said it targeted senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki, commander of the southern front, though the group later said he was "fine" and had been "moved to a safe place".

It did, however, confirm that a field commander, Mahmoud Al Nader, had died in an airstrike on Monday.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister has called Israel's barrage of airstrikes a "genocide in every sense of the word".

Najib Mikati was talking in a cabinet meeting in Beirut, adding that Israel's airstrikes aimed to destroy Lebanon's towns and villages.

There are already 160,000 displaced Lebanese who've fled the south during nearly a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, with authorities reporting "heavy displacement" on Monday.

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Imad Kreidieh, head of Lebanese telecoms company Ogero, said on Monday that more than 80,000 automated calls asking people to evacuate their areas had been detected on the network.

The fighting has raised fears the US, Israel's close ally, and Iran will be sucked into a wider Middle East war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying "traps" to lead his country into a wider conflict.

(c) Sky News 2024: Lebanon: Israel 'not looking for war' but warns Hezbollah its army 'is at full readiness'<