The Israeli military on Monday said it struck about 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, in a widening air campaign now also targeting the group's financial operations.
"Approximately 300 targets were hit in the last 24 hours alone," the military said in a statement, after military chief Herzi Halevi said around 30 targets related to Al-Qard al-Hassan, a financial firm linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The United States said Monday it wants the Israel-Hezbollah war to end "as soon as possible", and pressed for the enforcement of a UN resolution that required Iran-backed Hezbollah to withdraw from south Lebanon.
The call from Israel's top ally came as Israeli forces escalated their nearly month-long war in Lebanon, including targeting a finance group linked to Hezbollah, and continued pounding Gaza more than one year into the war there.
With the fighting raging, US envoy Amos Hochstein, visiting Lebanon's capital, said Washington wants to see the conflict in Lebanon end "as soon as possible".
"Tying Lebanon's future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people," Hochstein said, referring to a key Hezbollah demand that any ceasefire in Lebanon be linked to an end to the war in Gaza.
Hochstein also said that while UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, should be the basis for a new ceasefire, the parties had not done enough to implement it since then.
Israel expanded the scope of its war from Gaza to Lebanon last month, vowing to keep fighting Hezbollah until it secures its northern border to allow for the return of people displaced by rocket fire.
Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that the Israeli army blew up houses in the border village of Aita al-Shaab, adding that there had been heavy clashes in south Lebanon as the Israeli army "tried to advance".
Hezbollah said it had fired a salvo of rockets at Israeli soldiers near the village.
Nearly a month of all-out war has killed at least 1,470 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
People stand near a damaged branch of ‘Al-Qard al-Hassan', in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, Lebanon, Monday.
Smoke billows amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday.
