Smoke rises from Jabal al-Rihan, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, September 21, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS)

The Israeli military said it struck around 290 targets on Saturday, including thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels, and said it would continue to hit more targets.

Israel closed schools and restricted gatherings in many northern areas and ordered hospitals there to transfer their operations to facilities with extra protection from rocket and missile fire.

The conflict - which sharply escalated over the past week - has raged since Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel after Israel went to conflict with Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, triggered by the Hamas-led rampage in southern Israel on October 7.

Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Ramat David Airbase with successive barrages of missiles, in the deepest strikes it has claimed since hostilities began.

An official in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a grouping of armed factions, said they launched cruise missile and explosive drone attacks at Israel at dawn on Sunday as part of a new phase in its support front with Lebanon.

The escalating attacks come less than 48 hours after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah commanders in a suburb of the Lebanese capital. The death toll from that strike had risen to 45, the Lebanese health ministry said on Sunday.