BEIRUT, Oct 12: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.
"The Israeli enemy army uses the homes" of Israelis in north Israel, and has military bases inside residential "neighbourhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre," it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.
It warned Israelis "from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives."
After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23.
The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel warned residents of south Lebanon "not to return" to their homes on Saturday as Hezbollah said it launched missiles across the border on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
In cities around Israel, markets were closed and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed.
But with the country at war, troops remained engaged in combat in Hamas-run Gaza and in southern Lebanon, a traditional Hezbollah stronghold, amid a firestorm of criticism over the wounding of four UN peacekeepers.
In a message addressed to south Lebanese, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X: "For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice... Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk."
The war between Israel and Hezbollah has since September 23 killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, and forced more than a million to flee their homes.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at an Israeli army base near the northern city of Haifa.
In a statement the group said its fighters were "targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of... missiles".
Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.
Israel began pounding Gaza shortly after suffering its worst ever attacks from Iran-backed Hamas militants on October 7 last year, and it launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 30.
After the Yom Kippur holiday, attention is likely to turn again to Israel's expected retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.
on Friday, Israel faced severe diplomatic backlash over what it said was a "hit" on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said Friday.
The Israeli military said its soldiers had responded with fire to "an immediate threat" around 50 metres (yards) from the UNIFIL base in Naqura.
But the Irish military's chief of staff, Sean Clancy, said it was "not an accidental act" while French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the UN peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted".
Both Ireland and France are major contributors to UNIFIL.
As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation by UN chief Antonio Guterres, Western allies and others, its military pledged to carry out a "thorough review".
UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon are on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
Four peacekeepers have been injured including two Indonesians who were hurt on Thursday when a tank shot at their watchtower, according to UNIFIL.
Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire". —AFP
