Hezbollah threatens to attack targets across Israel

Lebanese group Hezbollah threatened Tuesday to attack targets across Israel and said it would not be defeated by ongoing intense bombardment of its strongholds and leadership.

The group's deputy leader Naim Qassem said the only .

"I am telling the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire," he said in a speech broadcast live.

In another day of fighting, the Iran-backed group said it launched a towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa and targeted Israeli bulldozers and a tank near the border.

Israel responded with fresh , a day after an estimated 41 people were killed in attacks on the country, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

In his speech, Qassem vowed that the group "will not be defeated" and would begin widening the scope of its targets inside Israel.

"Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place" in Israel, he said.

Only after a ceasefire would residents of northern Israel be able to return home, he said, referring to Israel's stated war aim.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told French President Emmanuel Macron he opposed any "unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon".

Iran, which supports Hezbollah, has in recent days engaged in diplomatic talks around establishing ceasefires in Lebanon and war-battered Gaza amid growing fears of a broader regional conflict.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati told AFP that his country was ready to bolster its military presence in the south after any , adding that Israeli troops were making brief cross-border incursions.

Security has been tightened in the country's only airport in Beirut "to remove any pretexts" for an Israeli attack, Mikati added.

Israel dramatically escalated its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon from September 23 and then launched a a week later intended to push the group back from its northern border.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of projectiles into Israel over the last year in support of Hamas, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.

Israel's military targeted several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was put out of service, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

An Israeli strike on the northern, Christian-majority village of Aito on Monday killed 21 people, mostly women and children, according to a revised toll from the Lebanese health ministry.

The UN rights office called for a "prompt, independent and thorough investigation" of the strike which levelled a residential building reportedly being used by displaced people.

At least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel escalated its bombing last month, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war in Lebanon, which has suffered years of economic crisis, has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.

Israel is also weighing to Iran's decision to launch about 200 missiles at the country on October 1.

Netanyahu's office said that Israel — and not its top ally the US — would decide how to .

"We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Iranian barrage was in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Lebanon's Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan on September 27.

US President Joe Biden — whose government is Israel's top arms supplier — has warned Israel against striking Iran's nuclear or oil facilities.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was only contemplating .