Israeli PM Netanyahu warns Lebanese to flee conflict zones amid rising hostilities

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanese people to move away from danger as the Israeli military pounded Hezbollah targets in the country's south and east on Monday.

"Please, get out of harm's way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes," Netanyahu said in a video statement shortly after the Israeli army announced it had struck 800 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The Israeli strikes killed 274 people, including 21 children, in Lebanon on Monday, the Lebanese health minister said, in by far the deadliest cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on October 7.

In his statement to people in Lebanon on Monday, Netanyahu said it was Hezbollah who had endangered their security.

"Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage," he said.

"Don't let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones."

Iran-backed Hezbollah began launching rockets towards Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in October after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of people in northern Israel on Sunday fled to bomb shelters as Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets across the border.

The cross-border fire came after an Israeli air strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold on Friday killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil, along with other commanders and civilians.

That strike followed coordinated communications device blasts on Tuesday and Wednesday that Hezbollah blamed on Israel and that killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.