Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) - Israel’s military said it killed 15 Hezbollah militants in an air strike on southern Lebanon, as the Iran-backed movement said it thwarted an Israeli advance at the border.

Israel announced this week that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of heavy bombardment on areas across the country where the group holds sway.

The bombing has killed more than 1,000 people, according to Lebanese health ministry figures, and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic and political crisis.

Israel, at war with Hamas in Gaza since its October 7 attack, shifted its focus to securing its northern border with Lebanon, the scene of near-daily clashes since Hezbollah launched low-intensity strikes in support of its Palestinian ally.

The clashes have forced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides to flee their homes, and Israel has vowed to ensure its citizens can return.

The Israeli military said Thursday it conducted a strike that killed 15 Hezbollah fighters in the Bint Jbeil municipality in south Lebanon, an area that had been heavily damaged during Israel’s last war with the militant group in 2006.

Israel told Lebanese to evacuate another 25 villages in the south, while Hezbollah issued a statement saying it had fought off a bid by the Israeli army to advance at Fatima’s Gate, another point along the border.

It also kept up its strikes on Israel, saying it had fired a barrage of rockets at the city of Tiberias in what it said was a response to the bombardment of Lebanese “towns, villages and civilians”.

- Central Beirut strike -

Earlier Thursday, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in central Beirut after eight of its ground troops were killed in combat near the border.

Multiple explosions in Beirut overnight were audible from kilometres (miles) away. AFP correspondents said buildings shook and they saw columns of smoke rising into the sky above Lebanon’s capital in the morning.

The strike in the heart of Beirut hit an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, killing seven workers, the service said.

“We are peaceful civilians in our homes,” said Hassan Ammar, 82, who had been staying in the high-rise building whose walls were partly blown out by the strike.

The building near downtown Beirut had become Ammar’s temporary home after he fled south Lebanon.

Israel’s military on Thursday did not immediately comment on the central Beirut strike, but said it had struck about 200 Hezbollah targets “in Lebanese territory”.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said Israel’s attacks may have displaced up to one million people.

- Iran missile attack -

The strike came after Hezbollah backer Iran launched its second, and largest, direct missile attack on Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay.

As Israel weighs retaliation for the Iranian missile strike, President Joe Biden said the United States was “fully supportive” of the ally but ruled out supporting a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran, which arms and funds Lebanon’s Hezbollah, said it would step up its response if Israel counterattacked.

Israel’s ground operations and continued bombing follow the decimation of Hezbollah’s leadership in a series of strikes, including a massive bombing in south Beirut that killed the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders last week.

Israel intercepted most of the 200 missiles launched by Iran. Two people in Israel were wounded by shrapnel and a school building was damaged.

In the Israel-occupied West Bank, a Palestinian was killed when “pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him”, Jericho governor Hussein Hamayel said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “those who attack the state of Israel, pay a heavy price”.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of a “stronger” response, though he stressed Iran was “not looking for war”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said its missiles were fired in retaliation for Nasrallah’s killing alongside that of a general in the Guards’ Quds force, as well as for the killing in July of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

A day after its military said it was launching ground operations in south Lebanon, Israel on Wednesday reported the first death of a soldier in the Israel-Hezbollah war, a toll that later rose to eight dead.

Hezbollah said it had forced Israeli soldiers to retreat, targeted an Israeli unit with explosives, and destroyed three Merkava tanks with rockets as they advanced on Maroun al-Ras village near Bint Jbeil.

The Israeli military said it had deployed a second division to support the fighting.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 46 people were killed and 85 others injured by Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours.

- ‘Sickening cycle’ -

The impact of the war was also felt in Syria, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said an Israeli strike in Damascus killed four people, including Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir, Nasrallah’s son-in-law.

In Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, Liron Yori, 22, said he was worried about “where the war’s going and I don’t feel comfortable with it.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an end to the “sickening cycle of escalation” in the Middle East, while specifically condemning Iran’s attack.

The G7 group of wealthy nations vowed to work together to reduce tensions in the region and said a diplomatic solution was “still possible”.

Months of similar calls, and mediation by the United States, Egypt and Qatar this year, failed to bring a truce in the Gaza war despite fears that the war could spread to Lebanon and beyond.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on Thursday said they carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv, although there was no direct confirmation from Israeli authorities.

Hezbollah began strikes on Israeli troops a day after Hamas staged its October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

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