Israeli forces urged residents of around 10 villages in southern Lebanon to leave by 6 pm (4pm Irish time) today ahead of planned air strikes against suspected Hizbollah guerrillas, military sources said.
"In tackling the terrorists, we have two choices either to send in troops or to bomb their infrastructure from the air. Clearly the latter is preferable, but we want to give the civilians time to leave," a military source said.
The source said the villagers had been asked to leave via broadcast messages and requests passed to community leaders, and that the deadline had been given "well in advance".
There was no immediate word on how many people were believed to be in the villages after 10 days of fighting in the region.
Israeli troops backed by around a dozen tanks and armoured vehicles were operating in the village of Maroun al-Ras, within the Lebanese border, where they said they had encountered Hizbollah bunkers, weapon stores and rocket-launching sites.
"This is a place where Hizbollah have a stronghold, where there are Hizbollah people attacking us," said army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal.
"This is part of our ongoing effort specifically along the border area to destroy all the Hizbollah assets and infrastructure," he said, emphasising that it was not the prelude to a larger-scale invasion of Lebanon.
"This shouldn't be interpreted as anything more than a limited incursion to secure the ground," he said.
At most, Israeli forces were operating one or two kilometres inside Lebanese territory, other army spokespeople said.
Television pictures showed smoke rising above a ridge about one kilometre inside Lebanon and the sound of gunfire and occasional blasts could be heard.
As well as at Maroun al-Ras, there are ongoing operations around the village of Marwaheen, to the west, the army said.
This evening more than 40 rockets fired by Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah hit towns across northern Israel, injuring more than a dozen people, damaging two houses and setting cars ablaze, medics and the army said.
A house in the town of Carmiel, about 15 km (10 miles) from the Lebanese border, received a direct hit with a rocket, leaving two people with minor injuries, medics said.
A second barrage of rockets fired hours later again hit Carmiel, seriously wounding one, rescue services said.
Other rockets hit the towns of Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona and Rosh Pina, closer to the Lebanese border. In Nahariya, firefighters battled to put out a large blaze sparked when two vehicles caught fire after a strike. One person was injured.
During operations, an Israeli soldier on Israel's side of the border was shot and wounded by a sniper, the military said.