A bomb dropped by an Israeli military aircraft hit an area near a Turkish Red Crescent convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Thursday, forcing the agency to abort the relief mission, the Crescent's Association Director General Omer Tasli declared on Friday.

Calling it "a saddening incident", Tasli was quoted by Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency as saying that the Crescent had gained Israel's agreement to open a security corridor for the agency's humanitarian aid into Lebanon, but a bomb dropped fired by an Israeli warplane hit an area about 600 meters away from the convoy vehicle.

"This is unacceptable. We had to withdraw our team to the Syrian side," he said.

"We have received information that the bomb incident was not deliberate. The Turkish Red Crescent emblem provided protection," he said, adding that Israel should not have thrown the bomb nevertheless.

Tasli also said that the 10,000 tons of flour carried by the Crescent's convoy which was originally bound for Lebanon would be diverted to the Palestinian territories.

So far, about 1,500 tons of flour has been sent by the Turkish Red Crescent to the Palestinian people, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the Israeli army on Thursday to expand the ground offensive in south Lebanon.

Violence erupted in Lebanon on July 12 when Israel started a massive assault against Lebanon's Hezbollah group which seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight during cross-border attack.

Aid agencies have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, which has been under an Israeli sea, land and air blockade for a month.

On another front, the Israeli army pressed ahead a large-scale offensive in Gaza to bring home a kidnapped soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.