Lebanon says 100 killed in Israeli strikes on south

Heaviest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes

Beirut: Lebanon said 100 people were killed and more than 400 wounded in Israeli strikes on the south on Monday, the heaviest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes.

"Continued Israeli enemy raids on southern towns and villages... killed 100 people and wounded more than 400, with children, women and emergency workers among the dead and wounded," a health ministry statement said, adding that the toll was provisional.

Israel said more than 300 Hezbollah sites had been targeted on Monday in dozens of strikes.

Israel military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari made a first of its kind appeal to people in Lebanon, telling them to avoid potential targets linked to Hezbollah as strikes would "go on for the near future".

Hagari said Israel's military "will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon".

He urged civilians "to immediately move out of harm's way for their own safety".

Hezbollah, a powerful political and military force in Lebanon, says it is acting in "support" of Hamas.

Ahead of the annual General Assembly, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned of Lebanon becoming "another Gaza" and said it was "clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire" there.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported "more than 80 air strikes in half an hour", targeting south Lebanon, as well as "intense raids" in the Bekaa Valley to the east, where it said a shepherd was killed.