Hezbollah also said its fighters targeted an Israeli tank near the border with a missile during Israel's ongoing assault in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said its forces struck a mosque in south Lebanon overnight, the first such strike since clashes erupted last year. It claimed Hezbollah fighters were inside.

The Salah Ghandour Hospital, located next to the mosque, reported that nine medical and nursing staff were seriously wounded after the Israeli attack.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that the grounds of the hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil were "subjected to Israeli shelling".

The hospital's director Mohammed Sleiman told AFP it took a direct hit and was evacuated.

In the first reported Israeli air strike on the northern Tripoli region in the current flare-up, Palestinian resistance group Hamas said "Zionist bombardment" of the Beddawi refugee camp killed a commander, Saeed Attallah Ali, as well as his wife and two daughters on Saturday.

Israel's escalation in recent days has seen intense strikes across Lebanon and ground raids near the border, transforming nearly a year of cross-border exchanges into a full-blown war.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in just a few days since Israel intensified its bombardment of Lebanon. This week, Israel announced that its troops had begun ground raids in parts of southern Lebanon.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.