DOZENS OF ISRAELI air strikes have hit Lebanon’s south and east, official media and AFP correspondents said, as the Israeli military told people in Lebanon to move away from Hezbollah targets.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said “enemy warplanes launched… more than 80 air strikes in half an hour”, targeting areas in south Lebanon, at the same time as “intense raids in the Bekaa” Valley area in east Lebanon. AFP correspondents in the south and east reported the sound of heavy strikes.

The Israeli military had told people in Lebanon to move away from Hezbollah targets and vowed to carry out more “extensive and precise” strikes against the Iran-backed group.

“We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety,” military spokesman Reard Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a media briefing, in a rare appeal made by the Israeli military to the people of Lebanon.

“The IDF (military) will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon.”

Hagari said the military had launched new strikes against Hezbollah sites since Monday morning.

“The strikes will go on for the near future,” he said.