Having made little headway militarily or diplomatically after 29 days of often fierce fighting, Israel's security cabinet gave approval Wednesday to greatly expand the country's war against Hezbollah by deciding to send tens of thousands more troops as far as 30 kilometres inside Lebanon to silence its enemy's rockets.

Earlier Wednesday evening, media outlets had reported battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants at least 10 kilometres deep into Lebanon. Reuters said that Israeli television had reported bodies of Iranian Republican Guards had been found among those killed during fighting, but Hezbollah later denied the claim.

Unbowed, Hassan Nasrallah, the charismatic Shia cleric who heads Hezbollah, appeared on all the Arab television networks within hours of Wednesday's announcement of the expanded offensive and threatened to turn the south of Lebanon into "a graveyard for Zionist invaders." He also warned "Muslim brothers" in the religiously mixed Israeli city of Haifa, which has been targeted many times by Hezbollah rockets recently, to avoid harm by leaving.