Israeli warplanes have carried out raids on Lebanon for a third consecutive day.

The attacks came as Israel told people it was safe to move out of shelters in the north of the country.

Israeli jets staged six raids on Jabal Ad-Dahr hills and Wadi Zelaya north of Israel's south Lebanon occupation zone, a security source said.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas said they had attacked Israeli troops in the zone, but there are no further details.

The Israeli raids are in retaliation for the killing of five Israeli soldiers more than two weeks ago.

But the Israeli army has ordered 300,000 people hiding in bunkers to go home.

It says fears that Hezbollah would try to fire Katyusha rockets in retaliation for the Israeli air strikes have subsided.

Latest raids

There were no immediate reports of casualties from these latest raids, but witnesses said Israeli jets were overflying the area constantly.

For the second day, Israel limited its air raids to the south, marking a decline in tension.

Israeli jets fired 14 air-to-surface missiles within an hour on the targets 20km (12 miles) north of the Israeli border, Lebanese security officials in the region said.

The region contains mountain caves fortified with concrete, which are hiding places for Hezbollah guerrillas, their weapons and supplies.

Hezbollah uses the area to launch attacks on Israeli troops and allied Lebanese militiamen in the occupied zone.

Lebanese army and Hezbollah anti-aircraft guns fired at the Israeli jets but missed, the security officials said.

Less raids

Hostilities reached a peak on Tuesday.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy warned "the soil of Lebanon will burn" if Hezbollah fired Katyusha rockets into northern Israel to retaliate for bombing raids on southern Lebanon.

"Let everyone hear: Vital interests of Lebanon will go up in flames and it will take many years to restore them," he warned.

But the remark was shrugged off by Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who said the threat was part of Israel's "terrorism" against his country.

"In making these threats, he reminds us of the genocide mentality that characterised Nazism in Hitler's time," Mr Hoss said.

He added that as the guerrillas were responding to Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, "we say that the solution, simply, would be to terminate the Israeli occupation".