- Hezbollah launches hundreds of missiles at northern Israel
- Attack follows assassination of Hezbollah commander in Beirut
- Israel says pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon stopped bigger attack
- Hezbollah says attack has been completed, denies plans thwarted by Israeli strikes
Missiles were visible curling up through the dawn sky, dark vapour trails behind them, as an air raid siren sounded in Israel and a distant blast lit the horizon, while smoke rose over houses in Khiam in southern Lebanon.
Three deaths were confirmed in Lebanon and none in Israel, where damage appeared to be limited. Hezbollah indicated it was not planning further strikes yet.
Israel's foreign minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: "This is not the end of the story."
Any major escalation in the fighting, which began in parallel with the war in Gaza, risks morphing into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah's backer Iran and Israel's main ally the United States.
Hezbollah said it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets towards Israel and hit 11 military targets in what it called the first phase of its retaliation for Israel's assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander, last month.
A Hezbollah official said it had delayed its retaliation to give a chance for ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks and other "political considerations". The official said the group had calibrated it to avoid triggering a full-scale war.
Israel's military said it had foiled a much larger attack with pre-emptive airstrikes on 40 launch sites after assessing that Hezbollah was preparing to launch the barrage.
Hezbollah dismissed Israel's statement that the group's attack had been foiled with pre-emptive strikes, saying it had been able to launch its drones as planned and that the rest of its response to Shukr's killing would take "some time".
Expectations of an escalation had risen since a missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month killed 12 youngsters and the Israeli military assassinated Shukr in Beirut in response.
Israel's security cabinet met early in the day and the full cabinet is meeting on Sunday afternoon. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency and Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel would respond to developments on the ground but did not seek a full-scale war.
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati met cabinet ministers at a session of the national emergency committee. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will speak on television later on Sunday, the group said.
Flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv were suspended for around 90 minutes.
Some flights to and from Beirut were halted, stranding passengers. "I just want to get out of here by any means possible," said Rana Saade, a Lebanese woman living in New Jersey.
In northern Israel, warning sirens sounded and explosions were heard in several areas as Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system shot down rockets coming from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military told people to limit gatherings, a restriction it later lifted, and said people could go to work if they could reach air raid shelters quickly. Israeli media said the barrage hitting northern areas had damaged houses.
A security source in Lebanon said at least 40 Israeli strikes had hit various towns in the country's south in one of the densest bombardments since hostilities began in October.
Hezbollah said the strikes killed two of its fighters in al-Tiri. The Hezbollah-allied Shi'ite Muslim group Amal said a strike on Khiam killed one of its fighters.
The White House said US President Joe Biden was following events. "We will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability," National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon and the UN's special coordinator's office in the country called on all sides to cease fire, calling the developments "worrying".
Egypt, one of the mediators in Gaza ceasefire talks, warned against the dangers of a new war front opening in Lebanon.
