Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses

Israel threatened on Tuesday to return to war in Lebanon if its truce with Hezbollah collapses, and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself, after the deadliest day since the ceasefire was agreed last week.

Israeli forces have continued strikes against what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30 km from the frontier.

On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Another person was killed on Tuesday by a drone strike, Lebanon said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any infraction of the truce would be punished, however small.

"We are enforcing this ceasefire with an iron fist," he said ahead of a cabinet meeting in the northern border city of Nahariya. "We are currently in a ceasefire, I note, a ceasefire, not the end of the war," he added.

Top Lebanese officials urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold the ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The sources said caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late on Monday.

Mikati, quoted by the Lebanese news agency, said that diplomatic communications had intensified since Monday to stop Israeli violations of the ceasefire. He also said a recruitment drive was under way by the Lebanese army to strengthen its presence in the south.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire "is holding" and that the US had "anticipated that there might be violations".

The truce came into effect on November 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon, while requiring Lebanon to prevent armed groups including Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel. It gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.