Beirut, Lebanon - The Israeli military on Tuesday announced the start of a ground invasion of southern Lebanon as all talks of deescalation and ceasefire disintegrated in the face of full-scale war.

A Lebanese security official said Israel had also conducted at least six strikes on south Beirut, while Syrian state media reported strikes around the capital Damascus that killed a journalist and at least three civilians.

Israel's military said troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery, launched ground raids targeting Hezbollah "in villages close to the border".

The targets "pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel", the military said.

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin late Monday gave Washington's backing to Israel "dismantling attack infrastructure along the border," abandoning any pretense that the US – which is arming and funding Israel – was working towards securing a ceasefire in the region.

Hezbollah has said it is "ready if Israel decides to enter by land" and earlier announced strikes on Israeli soldiers in the border village of Shtula.

As the Israeli air force pounded Beirut, a Palestinian camp official in south Lebanon said an Israeli strike hit Ain al-Helweh camp in the city of Sidon, targeting a Palestinian member of Fatah, a rival to Hamas that has been cooperating with Israel in its illegal occupation of the West Bank.

Israel's assaults on Lebanon have killed well over 1,000 of people – mostly civilians – over the past week and forced up to a million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese officials.

Hezbollah and other groups launched rockets, drones, and missiles at Israel, causing some injuries, but no deaths. Their demands are a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel continued to conduct daily massacres, the latest of which killed 12 people in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and seven others in a school sheltering displaced people.

A UN Satellite Center assessment said Monday that "two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage" in nearly a year of slaughter that has killed over 41,000 Palestinians.