JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said Tuesday it has conducted dozens of small ground operations over the past year.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israeli forces had crossed the border to gather information and destroy infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah militant group. He says they also blew up tunnels and arsenals.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT UPDATE. Below is an earlier AP story.

JERUSALEM —

The Israeli military warned people on Tuesday to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities, hours after announcing the start of ground operations against Hezbollah. The militant group denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon.

It was not immediately clear whether Israeli troops had crossed the border. No photos or videos have yet been released showing Israeli ground forces in Lebanon.

Israel advised people to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern end of a U.N.-recognized zone that was intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after the 2006 war.

“You must immediately go north of the Awali River to save yourselves and leave your homes immediately,” said a statement posted by Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on Platform X. The warning concerned communities south of Litani.

The border region has been largely deserted over the past year amid exchanges of fire between the two sides. However, the scope of the evacuation warning has raised questions about how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon as it continues its rapidly escalating campaign against Hezbollah.

Expecting further rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches.

Questions have been raised about the entry of Israeli forces

An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli soldiers operating near the border in armored trucks with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm that ground forces had entered Lebanon.

Neither the Lebanese army nor the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which patrols southern Lebanon, has confirmed the entry of Israeli forces. UNIFIL said any such cross-border operation would be a “hazardous event” and a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

In his first statement since Israel announced the start of ground operations, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif rejected what he described as “false claims” of an Israeli attack. He said Hezbollah was ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to enter Lebanon or attempt to enter the country.”

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said soldiers carried out “localized raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north. He did not provide any evidence.

An Israeli military official said the troops were a short distance from the border and focused on villages hundreds of meters (yards) away from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there had been no clashes with Hezbollah fighters yet.

The Israeli military was accused of lying to the media in 2021 when it issued a statement suggesting that ground troops had entered Gaza. The military dismissed the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-resourced military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.

Israel hits more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets

Israeli artillery units shelled targets in southern Lebanon overnight, and the sounds of airstrikes could be heard throughout Beirut.

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah fired rockets into central Israel, triggering sirens and wounding a 50-year-old man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new type of medium-range missile, called Fadi 4, at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah spokesman Afif said the rocket attack “is just the beginning.”

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah also fired missiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without injuring anyone.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, which started the Gaza war. Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict continues to escalate. In recent weeks, Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes on large parts of Lebanon, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders, as well as scores of civilians.

Hagari said the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 had not been implemented and that southern Lebanon was “rife with terrorists and Hezbollah weapons.”

The resolution called on Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces to patrol the region. Israel says these and other laws have never been enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating the remaining terms of the resolution.

Israeli official says he has no plans to march on Beirut

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday that his country was willing to deploy its army to support the resolution if there was a ceasefire. Lebanon’s armed forces would be unable to impose an agreement on the much more powerful Hezbollah.

Military statements indicated that Israel could concentrate its ground operations on a narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion to destroy Hezbollah, as it did in Gaza against the Palestinian Hamas.

A military official said marching to Beirut, as Israeli forces did during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, was “out of the question.”

Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation over the past year has raised fears of a wider Middle East war that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military resources to the region to support Israel.

The assault follows weeks of heavy Israeli attacks on Hezbollah – including an airstrike that killed its longtime leader Nasrallah – and is aimed at increasing pressure on the group. The last time Israel and Hezbollah engaged in ground combat was during the month-long war in 2006.

It is unclear how long the operation will last, but the army said soldiers have been training and preparing for the mission in recent months.

According to the Ministry of Health, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in Israeli attacks over the past two weeks, almost a quarter of them women and children. Hundreds of thousands of people left their homes.

Hezbollah is a well-trained militia, believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for another showdown.

Recent airstrikes that killed most of Hezbollah’s top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies indicate that Israel has penetrated deep into the group’s upper echelons.

Hezbollah vowed on Monday to continue fighting even after recent losses. The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement on Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks had already been replaced.

European countries began to withdraw their diplomats and citizens from Lebanon. On Wednesday, a plane chartered by the British government will take off from Beirut to evacuate British citizens. The UK also sent 700 troops to a base on the nearby island of Cyprus to prepare for the potential evacuation of around 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.

___

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.

___

This story corrects the name of a Hezbollah spokesman.