The Israeli military carried out intensive air strikes across Lebanon on April 1, killing a family of four in the southern town of Houmine al-Tahta in the Nabatieh district and striking Beirut's southern suburbs overnight, Lebanon 24 reported.

The Nabatieh strike killed a father, mother and their two daughters. Separately, four Syrian nationals were killed when a vehicle and van were hit on the Maroub-Dardaghia road near the same area.

A further strike on the village of Ramadiyeh caused casualties, with civil defence teams working to extract the wounded and reopen a road severed between the town and the village of Qana south of Tyre.

The IDF wrote: "Israeli Navy, directed by the Intelligence Directorate and Northern Command, conducted a strike in Beirut and eliminated Hajj Yusuf Ismail Hashem, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front.

The “Southern Front” is the unit within the Hezbollah terrorist organisation responsible for carrying out terrorist activities targeting Israeli civilians and for combat operations against IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon. As commander of the unit, Hashem advanced and led the rehabilitation of Hezbollah, and commanded the rocket launches and hostile aerial attacks toward Israeli territory."

In Beirut, an Israeli strike on the Jnah district killed five people and wounded 21, according to Lebanon's health ministry emergency operations centre. Strikes also hit the southern suburbs near the Hay al-Amerikan neighbourhood.

In the western Bekaa, two strikes on Mashghara killed one person and wounded another. Strikes were also recorded on Sahmor, Sujud, Sarifa, Harouf and Rachaya al-Fakhar, among other locations.

On the ground, Israeli forces infiltrated from a radar post on the heights above the town of Shebaa and took up positions in the Daf al-Sheikh area, firing three artillery shells toward the outskirts of the town. Artillery bombardment continued along the Bayada-Naqoura axis into the early hours.

Israeli troops also opened heavy fire on farmers working in the Marj plain near the town of al-Mari in the Hasbaya district, forcing them to abandon their fields. No casualties were reported.

Lebanon's health ministry said the total death toll since March 2 had risen to 1,268, with 3,750 wounded. More than 1mn people have been displaced since Israel launched its ground invasion.