Netanyahu warns airstrikes on Hezbollah are 'not the end of the story' while Iran threatens Israel with 'definitive' retaliation over killing of Hamas chief amid growing fears of all-out war in Middle East crisis dragging in US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned 'this is not the end of the story' after his nation launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday in a pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah.

The Lebanese militant group in turn launched more than 320 missiles and wave upon wave of kamikaze drones at Israeli military targets in what constituted the biggest exchange of fire between the two sides since fresh conflict broke out following Hamas' October 7 attacks. 

A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat and two more wounded, the military said, while at least three people are said to have been killed in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in what Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.

But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July, blamed on Israel, killed Iran-aligned militant leaders including the Hamas political chief and a top Hezbollah commander.

Diplomats said yesterday that both sides had sent messages to signal this round of hostilities was now over. 

But Netanyahu last night told his cabinet the strikes were 'not the final word' in the campaign against Hezbollah, while Israel continues to brace for a potential attack from Iran in retaliation for the killing of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. 

This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows a Hezbollah UAV intercepted by Israeli air forces over north Israel on August 25, 2024

Israel's air defence system intercepted hundreds of Hezbollah's drones and missiles

The Israeli military stated yesterday that Israeli Air Force fighter jets (left) conducted bombing raids on targets belonging to the Hezbollah organisation (Hezbollah drone right)

A view shows smoke and fire on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hit the Zibqin town in southern Lebanon on August 25

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (2nd R) are pictured at a military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 25, 2024

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah giving a televised address from an undisclosed location, August 25

Hezbollah said its militants launched 'a large number of drones' and 'more than 320' Katyusha rockets targeting 'enemy positions' across the border in a major aerial assault yesterday. 

The group's leader Hassan Nasrallah named the 'main target' as the Glilot military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which Israeli media reported is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.

Israel's military said there were 'no hits' on the base.

A secondary target, said Nasrallah, was Ein Shemer, a military airport used by Israeli drones.

He also appeared to suggest Hezbollah's retaliation for Shukr's killing was over, saying 'if the result is satisfactory' then its response 'has been accomplished'.

An AFP photographer in Acre, an Israeli city 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border, reported damage to three homes from a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel smashing windows and destroying a bed.

'There were explosions in the area of Haifa,' said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. 'I was stopped and was told not to go to the beach.'

Footage from early Sunday showed dozens of interceptor rockets being launched into dense clouds above the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.

Another military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah's strikes were 'part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning'.

The fighting disrupted air travel in Israel and Lebanon, with both British Airways and Air France among those suspending flights to Tel Aviv.

A US defence official said Washington had helped track the Hezbollah barrage although it was not involved in shooting down any drones or rockets or in the strikes on Lebanon.

The Flightradar24 tracking website on Sunday afternoon showed a US Navy surveillance drone had been flying over nearby Mediterranean waters.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, one of several Iran-backed groups that have been drawn into the Gaza war's periphery, hailed the Hezbollah attack and declared that their own retaliation was 'definitely coming'.

Hamas meanwhile hailed Hezbollah's Sunday attack as 'a slap in the face' for Israel, and the Palestinian movement on Sunday night said it fired a rocket toward Tel Aviv.

Israel's military said it landed in an 'open area' south of the city.

An Israeli fighter jet ejects flares over an area near the Lebanon-Israel border, as seen from northern Israel, 25 August 2024

Smoke rises from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, August 25, 2024

The sister of Petty Officer 1st Class David Moshe Ben Shitrit, who was killed on a Hezbollah attack, mourns during his funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024

People look at the damage at a residential building following a direct-hit from a projectile, after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones towards Israel in what the Iranian-backed movement said was a response to the assassination of a senior commander in Beirut last month, in northern Israel August 25, 2024

Britain and Jordan were among those to appeal on Sunday for an end to the escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also called for the UN Security Council to take 'deterrent' and 'effective' measures against Netanyahu and his ministers who 'kill all chances of achieving peace'. 

Iran does not seek to increase Middle East tensions, its Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani.

But the Iranian diplomat added that his nation's retaliation for the killing of the Hamas chief in Tehran will be 'definite and calculated'.

Amid the escalating regional tensions, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the presence of two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East.

In the leadup to Sunday's major exchange, Western and Arab diplomats had sought to head off regional retaliation, stressing the urgency of reaching a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose officials have been mediating Gaza truce talks for months alongside the US and Qatar, 'warned of the dangers of a new front opening in Lebanon' and called for progress in the talks to enable a 'path to calm and stability in the region' his office said.

A Hamas official said on Sunday the group's delegation had left the Egyptian capital after meeting with mediators.

In Gaza, witnesses said battles raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, in the territory's central region.

Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.