By James Mackenzie and Timour Azhari
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday its fighters had pushed back advancing Israeli forces in clashes along the length of the border, including in a village where Israeli troops had been filmed hoisting an Israeli flag.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets against Israel for a year in parallel with the Gaza war and is now fighting it in ground clashes that are spreading along Lebanon's mountainous frontier with Israel.
The Iran-backed group said it had fired several rocket salvoes at Israeli troops near the village of Labbouneh in the western part of the border area, close to the Mediterranean coast, and had managed to push them back.
Further east, it said it had attacked Israeli soldiers in the village of Maroun el-Ras and unleashed missile barrages at Israeli forces advancing towards the twin border villages of Mays al-Jabal and Mouhaybib.
Video footage posted on social media showed three Israeli soldiers raising their country's blue and white flag in Maroun el-Ras, the first time for decades they are known to have done so on Lebanese territory Israel occupied from 1982-2000. Reuters confirmed the location based on visible geographic features.
Amin Sherri, a Hezbollah politician visiting displaced people in schools in Beirut on Wednesday, told reporters that Israeli forces had not been able to achieve their military aims and the Israeli flag raised in the south was up only briefly.
Rocket sirens sounded constantly across northern Israel on Wednesday, including in the major port city of Haifa, following heavy fire from Lebanon. Israel's military said about 40 projectiles were launched in one barrage at Haifa, some of which were intercepted while others fell in the area.
Israeli ambulance workers said two people were killed in strikes on Kiryat Shmona near the border and at least six were wounded in Haifa.
Israel meanwhile launched airstrikes including at targets far from the border combat zone. The Lebanese health ministry said four people were killed and 10 wounded by a strike in the town of Wardaniyeh, north of Sidon along the coast.
The escalation in Lebanon, after a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, has raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could draw in Iran and Israel's superpower ally the United States.
In recent weeks Israel has carried out a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah leaders and launched ground operations into south Lebanon that expanded further this week.
Israel has said that troops from as many as four divisions have operated in Lebanon since the first announcement of the ground operation on Oct. 1. It has not confirmed that they have established a permanent presence there.
Its bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, most of them in the last two weeks, and forced 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has no choice but to strike Hezbollah so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they fled under Hezbollah rocket fire.
Israel last fought a major war against Hezbollah in 2006, following its 18-year-long occupation of south Lebanon.
At the port in Beirut, some 2,000 Turkish citizens and their family members were awaiting evacuation on Wednesday aboard two landing ships sent by Turkey.
"We cannot take this situation anymore. No one knows where this country is taking us. The siege is becoming bigger," said Issa Malak, a Turkish-Lebanese dual citizen. "There is no future in Lebanon."
BURN VICTIMS
Burn victims from Israeli strikes are being treated at a specialised unit in Beirut's Geitaoui hospital, the only one of its kind in the country. Reuters journalists saw nurses gently change the gauze on patients, some of whom were wrapped neck down because of the severity of burns.
Mahmoud Dhaiwi, a Lebanese soldier, told Reuters he was off duty and heading to the beach when his car was hit by an Israeli strike. His whole body was burned.
Overnight, Israel again bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and said it had killed a figure responsible for budgeting and logistics for Hezbollah, Suhail Hussein Husseini. The densely-populated and thriving suburban district has been abandoned by many residents.
Hezbollah and Hamas are both parts of Iran's network of allied armed movements across the Middle East, and Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah leaders have dealt a blow to Iran.
Tehran's semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander as saying that Esmail Qaani, commander of its Quds Force overseas arm who visited Lebanon last week, was well and would soon receive a medal. Two senior Iranian security officials had told Reuters that Qaani had not been heard from since Israeli bombings of south Beirut.
U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to speak on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about possible Israeli retaliation on Iran for an Iranian missile strike on Oct. 1. The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's response to the strike, which Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel's escalation in Lebanon.
(Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily, Parisa Hafezi, Andrew Mills, Maha El Dahan and Pesha Magid; writing by Michael Georgy and Peter Graff; editing by Christina Fincher, William Maclean and Mark Heinrich)
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