By Jana Choukeir
May 26 (Reuters) - Israel is "deepening its operations in Lebanon", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday, while it remained unclear if a potential ceasefire deal with Iran would bring the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah to a halt.
The Israeli military "is operating with large forces in the field and capturing controlling areas," Netanyahu said in a statement. "We are fortifying the security strip to protect the northern communities."
The statement also said Israel was working to find creative solutions to combat Hezbollah's explosive drones.
Two sources said on Tuesday the Israeli military had expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon beyond a demarcation line that Israel set up several kilometres inside Lebanese territory after an April 16 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The sources gave no further details on the extent of the advance beyond the so-called "Yellow Line".
That line, separate from the U.N.-demarcated "Blue Line" marking the frontier between Lebanon and Israel after Israel's withdrawal in 2000, forms part of a proposed buffer zone extending 5 km to 10 km (3 miles to 6 miles) into southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops continue to operate in dozens of largely abandoned villages.
An Israeli military official said the military was "operating in a targeted manner beyond the Forward Defense Line in order to remove direct threats to the citizens of the State of Israel" and Israeli soldiers, "in accordance with the directives of the political echelon."
Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would intensify its strikes against Hezbollah, while a U.S. official said the Iran-backed group had ignored warnings to halt attacks that risked undermining negotiations to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had targeted Israeli forces advancing toward the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya with explosive drones, rockets and artillery, while the Israeli military struck several towns in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley and issued new evacuation warnings.
Lebanon's health ministry says the cumulative toll from the Israeli offensive since March 2, when Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel in response to the start of the Iran war, had reached 3,213 dead and 9,737 wounded as of May 26. The Israeli military says that since the April 16 ceasefire, Hezbollah has launched explosive drones towards Israeli troops and northern Israeli towns, killing at least 11 soldiers.
The World Health Organization has said at least 608 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since the truce.
Hezbollah has not released figures for its own casualties.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Maya Gebeily, additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Sharon Singleton and Hugh Lawson)
