Israel on Tuesday said it was not seeking to take territory in Lebanon, as its military issued a wave of new evacuation warnings for towns and villages in the battle-scarred south.

Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since early March, sending troops into south Lebanon to battle the Iran-backed group, with the violence ongoing despite a shaky April 17 ceasefire.

“Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. Our presence… serves one purpose: protecting our citizens,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a news conference.

“No country would be willing to live in such a way with a gun pointed to its head,” he said, as the military pressed its operations in Lebanon against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

After the ceasefire began, Israel declared a so-called “yellow line”, marking out a strip of Lebanese territory by the border, 10 kilometres (six miles) deep, where its troops were operating.

“In a reality where Hezbollah and other terror organisations – including Palestinian terror groups – are dismantled, Israel will have no need to maintain its presence in these areas,” Saar said.

Despite the truce, Israel and Hezbollah have both engaged in fighting, trading blame over their alleged violations.

Tuesday’s evacuation warning was aimed at residents in more than a dozen villages and towns, urging them to immediately head northwards.

“Out of concern for your safety, you are required to evacuate your homes immediately and move… towards the Sidon District,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X.

Shortly afterwards, Lebanon’s state media said Israel carried out airstrikes across the south, hitting targets including the named areas.

It also said at least one Israeli demolition operation was taking place in the south.

All the areas listed for evacuation appear to be outside or on the border of the “yellow line”.

On three separate occasions on Tuesday, the military said it sought to intercept “a suspicious aerial target” where troops were operating, without saying what it was.

It also said Hezbollah had launched a number of explosive drones that detonated adjacent to IDF soldiers, but nobody was hurt.

In a similar incident the day earlier, a soldier was severely wounded and another lightly hurt “as a result of an explosive drone impact”, it said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Hezbollah’s rockets and drones remained a key threat requiring ongoing military action.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.