Israel has again expanded its evacuation of communities along its northern border with Lebanon amid increased fighting with Hezbollah in the neighboring country.

The evacuation includes a total 14 communities whose residents will be taken to state-funded guests houses, Israel's ministry of defense said Sunday.

Israel has been waging war against Hamas in the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza since Oct 7, when the militant group launched a surprise attack that killed some 1,400 people.

Amid the war in southern Israel, the Iran-backed and Lebanese-based Hezbollah has been increasingly fighting the Israeli military in the north, raising worries in Washington and elsewhere of the conflict expanding in the Middle East.

Israel first ordered its citizens living in a narrow 1.2-mile band of the Lebanese border out on Oct. 16, with an expanded evacuation ordered Friday.

The ministry said some 120,000 Israelis were participating in the evacuation program that involved the use of 234 guest houses and hotels across the country.

The evacuation was called as Israeli warplanes overnight struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The Israeli Defense Forces said early Monday that it hit a terrorist cell "planning to carry out an anti-tank missile launched towards the town of Shlomi." Targets hit also included weapons, infrastructure, a military compound and an observation post, it said.

The attack came after it said late Sunday that it had struck two Hezbollah terrorist cells at the Lebanese border.

The seemingly intensifying cross-border fighting comes as officials in Washington worry that the war may be expanding and as they warn Iranian proxies to not try and take advantage of the situation.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a tour of the Sunday news circuit said the Biden administration is concerned that Iran, which is also aligned with Hamas, was trying to escalate the war.

"No one wants a second or third front, including when it comes to Lebanon," he told Kristen Welker of NBC's Meet the Press.

"That's not in anyone's interest, and that's exactly why we've sent a very strong message to try to deter Hizballah, deter Iran more directly, from opening up a second front," he said, referring to President Joe Biden's warnings to the Iranian regimen.

"He has put the countries and non-state actors on warning: don't take advantage of the situation."

3 generations of Israeli family killed by Hamas laid to rest at Kibbutz Be'eri
 Washington DC (UPI) Oct 23, 2023 –

Members of three generations of an Israeli family were laid to rest in Kibbutz Be'eri after they were killed in the attack by Hamas earlier in the month.

Mourners held funerals Sunday for 17 victims of the Oct. 7 attack at the kibbutz, part of a larger attack on Israel by the militant group that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead.

More than two weeks later, forensic investigators are still going through the remains following the attack to identify possible victims. Thus far, 108 members of the kibbutz are confirmed dead. That equates to around 10% of the population of roughly 1,100.

About 70 people remain missing, with many believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas militants and taken into Gaza.

Ohad Cohen, 43, his 10-month-old daughter Mila, and 73-year-old mother Yona were among those given a formal burial Sunday.

Cohen's wife, Sandra, was hit by four bullets and their 9-year-old son grazed by shrapnel. The rest of the family was in the midst of being escorted toward Gaza by Hamas gunmen when they were rescued by Israeli soldiers.

U.S. citizens are among those kidnapped. Two Americans were freed last week after being held by Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

Forensics teams are diligently sorting through the kibbutz rubble in an effort to identify any remaining victims and give closure to family members that are left wondering about the fate of their loved ones.

The scope of the destruction and the amount of rubble to sift through is making it a painstaking task.

"Today it's a flower garden compared to what it was in the beginning. This round of searches is quieter, we're looking for small things," volunteer Yossi Landau told the Times of Israel in an interview Sunday.

Israeli authorities have positively identified the bodies of 769 civilians killed on Oct, 7.

More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 14,000 injured as a result of the Israeli military's counter-offensive against Gaza.