Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon to combat Hezbollah militants resulted in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers on Wednesday, raising fears of a broader Middle East conflict.
This comes a day after Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran's missile attack on Tuesday, which Tehran claimed was in response to Israel's killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week, along with the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.
The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks, without elaborating. The assaults were among the deadliest against Israeli forces in months. Another seven troops, including a combat medic, were wounded.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah, said it would step up its response if Israel retaliates, defying calls for de-escalation in a war that has cost more than 1,000 lives in Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden ruled out supporting an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian again warned of a "stronger" response, though he stressed Iran was "not looking for war."
Earlier, the military had announced that a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade was killed in Lebanon, the first Israeli combat death since the start of the incursion. "Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, aged 22... fell during combat in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.
Hezbollah said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops who had "infiltrated" a southern border village.
The group said earlier it had forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw after they attempted to enter the border village of Adaysseh further northeast.
It was the first time the Iran-backed group said there was fighting on Lebanese soil since the start of an escalation in recent weeks when the Israeli army began pounding south Lebanon and later killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike.
"This is just the start of the confrontation," Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif told media on a tour in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs.
"The resistance in the south is at its highest level of readiness," he added, referring to Hezbollah fighters.
Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.
Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device, but the militants did not elaborate on the number of dead and wounded.
The Lebanese army also said Israeli forces had briefly breached the demarcation line between the countries. "Israeli enemy forces breached the Blue Line by approximately 400 meters into Lebanese territory" in two areas, "then withdrew a short time later," it said on X.
Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army called for the evacuation of additional areas in southern Lebanon, telling residents to leave over 20 villages and towns in south Lebanon.
The move came a day after a similar evacuation call was made by the Israeli military as it announced the launch of ground operations.
The Israeli military has warned people in and around 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometres from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.
Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas.
Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Israel lashed out at the United Nations on Wednesday, declaring Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata, or banned from entering the country. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused him of failing to unequivocally condemn Tuesday night's Iranian missile attack.
Guterres released a brief statement after the barrage that read: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire.”
The move deepens an already wide rift between Israel and the United Nations.
Meanwhile, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday called for a decisive strike to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities after the Islamic republic fired a barrage of missiles at Israel.
"We must act now to destroy Iran's nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime," Bennett wrote on X just hours after the attack on Israel on Tuesday.
"We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralysed, Iran stands exposed," wrote Bennett.
In a separate statement, Israel's main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said Iran should pay a "significant and heavy price" for the attack.
"Tehran knows that Israel is coming. The response needs to be tough and it should send an unequivocal message to the terror axis in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and in Iran itself," said Lapid, who also briefly served as premier in 2022.
Iran has been accused of seeking to develop atomic weapons, though the Islamic republic insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but has never admitted so
