Beirut, Lebanon  -   Israel warned Monday it could send in troops to fight Hezbollah, warning the battle was not over despite the killing of its leader in an air strike. Hezbollah, however, said its fighters were ready to face any ground offensive in Lebanon, even after the seismic blow inflicted by the killing of its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel launched earlier this month a wave of deadly air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon, and on Friday bombed Nasrallah in Beirut. In northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will use all the means that may be required... from the air, from the sea, and on land.”

He said the killing of Nasrallah “is an important step, but it is not the final one.” Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, in a first televised address since the massive Friday strike, said the armed movement was “ready if Israel decides to enter by land. The resistance forces are ready for any ground confrontation.”

Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 which triggered war in the Gaza Strip. The border clashes have rapidly escalated this month, leaving people across the region fearful of even more violence to come.

The Israeli strikes continued on Monday, with one of them killing a soldier in south Lebanon according to a military statement -- the first death among Lebanese troops in the current escalation.  Israel said earlier this month that it was shifting its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border, and has not ruled out a ground offensive in order to achieve its goals. Israel’s strikes on Lebanon have killed hundreds of people over the past week and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes. Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones and some missiles at Israel over the same period, causing some injuries but no deaths.

‘Everyone is afraid’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of plunging “our region deeper... into war”.

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu warned. Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any fighters to confront Israel. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a ceasefire based on a recent US-French proposal, urging “an end to the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”.

US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main weapons supplier, on Monday indicated he opposes an Israeli ground operation. “We should have a ceasefire now,” he said. Most of Israel’s strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the group’s main bastion. On Monday, an Israeli strike hit a building in central Beirut, with an armed Palestinian group saying it had killed three of its members. The strike, the first in the city centre in years, sparked panic.

“Our country is in a wretched state. They (Israel) finished with Gaza and they have come to Lebanon,” 41-year-old resident Mohammed al-Hoss said. Another resident, Kahier Bannout, 42, said central Beirut was “supposed to be a safe area -- not a war zone”. Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, was killed along with his wife and two children in a strike on Al-Bass refugee camp in south Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Sharif.

- ‘There is little time’ -

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said more than 1,000 people have been killed since September 17.

UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon”, while more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.

Israel said it carried out strikes on Sunday targeting Huthis in Yemen, which the latter on Monday said killed five people. On Saturday the Huthis said they had launched a missile at Israel.

World leaders have called for a de-escalation, while some governments have urged their citizens -- and in some cases, embassy staff or their families -- to leave Lebanon.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, the first high-level diplomat to visit Beirut since the Israeli strikes intensified, on Monday urged Israel “to refrain from any ground incursion”, after he had earlier called for a halt in the violence.

“There is still hope” for a ceasefire, he said, “but there is little time”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said diplomacy was the best path forward for the region.

Washington “will continue to work... to advance a diplomatic resolution” for the Israel-Lebanon border, and “to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza” that would free Israeli hostages and ease Palestinians’ “suffering”, he said.

In Gaza, AFP journalists said the number of Israeli air strikes has dropped significantly in recent days.

A UN Satellite Centre assessment issued Monday said “two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage” in nearly a year of war.

Children in Gaza, unable to go to school for many months, “are not allowed to have the life of normal children, no education, no play, no joy”, UNICEF spokesman for the Palestinian territories Jonathan Crickx told AFP after a mission to the  territory.