By James Mackenzie, Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT — Israel said commando and paratroop units launched raids into Lebanon on Tuesday as part of a “limited” ground incursion, while Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had fired a barrage of missiles into Israel, including at its spy agency near Tel Aviv.

The raids by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon that began overnight were limited and went only a short distance over the border, an Israeli security official said on Tuesday, adding that no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters were reported.

The escalation caused alarm.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Israel should avoid a repeat of the past and not get “bogged down in a quagmire” in Lebanon.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Israel should stop conducting ground raids in southern Lebanon to avoid an escalation of the conflict enveloping the wider region.

Hezbollah has challenged Israel since the group was created in Lebanon by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.

The Israeli raids follow intense airstrikes that have devastated the Hezbollah’s leadership, including assassinating its chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week.

Israel’s military said its ground raids are aimed at Hezbollah strongholds along the border that threaten Israel and is not a war against the Lebanese people.

“Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases ready for an attack on Israel,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

Residents in southern Lebanon fled on Monday and Tuesday as Israeli strikes drew nearer, local sources told Reuters.

At least 600 people were seeking refuge in a monastery on the southern Lebanon border on Tuesday after their Christian village of Ain Ebl received a warning from the Israeli military, local residents told Reuters.

An Israeli military spokesman warned residents of Ain Ebl and at least 20 other towns to evacuate their homes immediately because the military would attack houses that armed group Hezbollah was using.

The residents fled to the monastery in the town of Rmeish, which did not receive a warning, and were waiting for an army convoy to escort them to Beirut.

NEW ROCKETS USED

A Hezbollah spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday that the Israeli military had not entered Lebanese territory but that Hezbollah would be ready to fight them in direct clashes if they did.

Two Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli units had crossed into Lebanon overnight for reconnaissance and probing operations.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday that it had fired the “Fadi 4” at military positions in the suburbs of Israel commercial hub Tel Aviv. It is the fourth iteration of a series which have progressively bigger payloads and longer ranges that Hezbollah has begun to use in recent weeks.

The group also said it fired missiles at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, blamed for assassinations of Hezbollah commanders and leaders, and at a military intelligence unit on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been wounded by shrapnel from the barrage of missiles fired into Tel Aviv and the wider central Israel area. Traffic was also affected by part of a missile that fell onto a highway near the town of Kfar Qasim east of Tel Aviv.

Lebanon is facing one of the most dangerous stages in its history, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday during a meeting with UN organizations and ambassadors of donor countries, in which they made a joint appeal for more than $400 million in aid to cope with surging hostilities.

Despite its biggest successes against Hezbollah in decades, Israel has indicated it is primed for a full-fledged invasion of Lebanon with the stated aim of enabling thousands of its citizens who fled Hezbollah rockets to safely return to their communities near the northern border.

Israel’s strikes have displaced one million Lebanese from their homes and killed more than 1,100 people, Lebanese authorities have said. A looming ground offensive has sparked fear and anger in Lebanon.

“Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Abu Alaa, a resident of the southern port city of Sidon.

EXPANDING STRIKES

Iran’s allies — from Hezbollah to Yemen’s Houthis to armed groups in Iraq — have weighed in with attacks in the region in support of Hamas in the Gaza war, raising fears the conflict will engulf the oil-producing Middle East and suck in the United States and Tehran.

Yemen’s Houthi movement launched drone attacks at Israeli military posts in Tel Aviv and Eilat on Tuesday, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

Israel launched an attack on Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, according to two Palestinian security officials. It marked the first strike on Ain el-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, since cross-border hostilities between broke out nearly a year ago.

His fate was unknown and Israel has not commented on the strike.

In Syria, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said, citing a military source. Israel’s military said it does not comment on foreign media reports.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up raids since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel’s southern territory on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages in its assault on Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Israel in response began an assault on Hamas in Gaza, killing more than 41,300 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. — Reuters