JERUSALEM/BEIRUT — Israel said intense fighting erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Tuesday (Oct 1) after its paratroopers, commandos and armoured units launched raids at the start of a ground incursion.

The operation follows intense airstrikes that have devastated the group's leadership, including assassinating its chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week.

The Israeli military said the operations in Lebanon began on Monday night and involved the elite 98th division, which was deployed to the northern front two weeks ago from Gaza where they had been fighting against Hamas for months.

It said its air force and artillery supported ground troops engaged in "limited, localised, and targeted ground raids" against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon villages that posed "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel".

Israel's ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds along the border that threaten Israel, not a war against the Lebanese people, Israel's military said on Tuesday.

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