Lebanon live: Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut targets Hezbollah commander

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati to discuss the ongoing "dangerous" situation in Lebanon. “We need an immediate ceasefire to allow for a diplomatic solution in line with UN resolutions,” she posted on X.

I discussed with PM @Najib_Mikati the dangerous situation in Southern Lebanon and its impact on civilians.

We need an immediate ceasefire to allow for a diplomatic solution in line with UN resolutions.

We will keep supporting the Lebanese people impacted by the conflict. pic.twitter.com/1UB1fvFBh9

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 26, 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday it would be "a mistake" for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refuse a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that he would have to take "responsibility" for a regional escalation.

"The proposal that was made is a solid proposal," Macron said at a news conference in Montreal, specifying that the plan supported by the United States and the EU had been prepared with Netanyahu himself.

An Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 22, including women and children.

Footage from the al-Falouja School showed rescue workers rushing casualties out of the school compound amid widespread debris and crowds of people. One video showed men wrapping a mangled, severed torso in a plastic sheet and putting body parts into a cooler.

The Israeli military said it had launched new air strikes on south Lebanon on Thursday evening, after top officials flatly rejected a US-backed call for a 21-day ceasefire.

"The (Israeli military) is currently striking Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to stop Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, saying Israel had almost entirely destroyed Gaza and it was no longer fit for life.

"This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people," he told the 193-member General Assembly.

Abbas called for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza and a full withdrawal of the Israeli military from the enclave.

"We refuse the establishment of buffer zones or taking any part from Gaza," he said. "We will not allow a single centimeter of Gaza to be taken."

"The State of Palestine must shoulder its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip and impose its full mandate on it and jurisdiction on it, including the border checkpoints, especially the Rafah international border," Abbas said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday his government had not responded to a US-led push for a 21-day ceasefire in its campaign against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"It is an American-French proposal, which the prime minister has not even responded to," said a statement from Netanyahu's office, adding that he had ordered the army "to continue the fighting with full force".

rael said on Thursday it had secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to support its ongoing military efforts and to maintain a qualitative military edge in the region.

The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement, which has already been received and earmarked for critical military purchases, and $5.2 billion designated for air defense systems including the Iron Dome anti-missile system, David's Sling and an advanced laser system.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein discussed with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi the need to unify efforts to achieve a Lebanon ceasefire, state media reported on Thursday. 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Israel's attacks on Lebanon targetting the militant Hezbollah group will continue as long as the West remains silent, broadcaster CNN Turk and other media reported on Thursday.

Turkey has denounced Israel's devastating military offensive in Gaza, and it has condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon too.

Speaking to Turkish journalists in New York before leaving the U.N. General Assembly, Erdogan said Israel's airstrikes on Lebanon were proof that it was trying to spread the war in Gaza to the wider region, adding the U.N was powerless to stop it.

"As the world remains silent and Western countries give the Israeli leadership weapons support, these massacres will sadly continue. We stressed this in our meetings," he was reported as saying.

Israel's air force will stop any arms transfers from Iran to Hezbollah and is preparing to assist troops in any ground operations against the Lebanese group, the force's chief said on Thursday.

"In Lebanon we're going to prevent any possibility of arms transfers in Lebanon from Iran," said Air Force Commander Major General Tomer Bar. "Nasrallah's confidence ... depends on the supply coming from Iran," he added, referring to Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

"We are preparing shoulder to shoulder with Northern Command for a ground maneuver. Prepared, if activated. This is a decision to be made above us," he told soldiers, in a video distributed by the Israeli military.

The White House insisted Thursday that a US-led international call for a ceasefire in Lebanon had been "coordinated" with Israel, despite Israel later rejecting the truce and vowing to keep fighting Hezbollah.

"The statement was indeed coordinated with the Israeli side," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that talks were continuing at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Lebanon reported that over 31,000 people have crossed into Syria over the past two days as Israeli airstrikes continue to target the country. According to a statement from Lebanon's disaster management unit, authorities recorded 15,600 Syrian citizens and 16,130 Lebanese citizens entering Syria.

A Norwegian linked to the detonation of communication devices used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has been reported missing, prompting authorities to issue an international arrest warrant, police said Thursday.

Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) confirmed to AFP that it had sent an international notice without identifying the man.

Oslo police last week opened an investigation into a Norwegian man's alleged links to the blasts.

"A missing persons case has been opened and we have issued an international search for the person," Mari Elise Bunaes Myhrer of the Oslo police told broadcaster NRK.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it targeted on Thursday the northern Israeli town of Safed with dozens of rockets in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

"Defending Lebanon and its people, and in response to the barbaric Israeli" attacks on "cities, villages and civilians" in Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters targeted Safed "with 80 rockets", a statement said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Thursday that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could spark a "regional conflagration" after holding talks with Israeli opposition politician Benny Gantz.

During a visit to Berlin, Gantz also met German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other officials to discuss Israel's war on Gaza and fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Scholz posted on X that "Hezbollah must withdraw from the border area of Lebanon" and that "all parties have a responsibility to find a diplomatic solution".

The German leader, who spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday, said "the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah must not become a regional conflagration".

Scholz's spokesman said the chancellor added that "Iran also has a responsibility to de-escalate the situation" and that urgent steps were needed toward a Gaza ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.

Hezbollah must withdraw from the border area of Lebanon. All parties have a responsibility to find a diplomatic solution. I spoke about this with @gantzbe. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah must not become a regional conflagration. pic.twitter.com/xeV2zlOrTd

— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) September 26, 2024

Lebanon said Thursday that over 1,500 people had been killed in almost a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army that has spiralled dramatically this week.

According to figures in a statement released by the country's disaster management unit, 1,540 people have been killed, 60 of them in the past 24 hours, and 5,410 wounded in the ongoing hostilities.

Lebanon said Thursday more than 31,000 people had crossed into Syria during the past two days as Israeli air strikes pound the country, sending tens of thousands fleeing.

Over the past two days, Lebanese authorities "recorded the crossing of 15,600 Syrian citizens and 16,130 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory", a statement from the country's disaster management unit said.

The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel and its offensive in the Gaza Strip in front of world leaders on Thursday, appealing to other nations to stop what he called a "genocidal war" against a place and people he said had been totally destroyed.

Abbas strode to the podium to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first words were a sentence repeated three times: "We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave."

"Palestine is our homeland. It is the land of our fathers and our grandfathers. It will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it would be the occupying usurpers," he said.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said Thursday that Israel should not be in the United Nations, saying it has defied resolutions on the conflict.

"Israel, which refuses to implement United Nations resolutions, does not deserve to be a member in this international organization," Abbas told the UN General Assembly, which months earlier said the State of Palestine merited full membership.

Israel's far-right national security minister on Thursday threatened to boycott cabinet activities if the government agrees to a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah being pushed by the United States and its allies.

"If a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah is signed, the (Jewish Power) faction will not fulfil all coalition obligations -- this includes voting, attending government and cabinet meetings, and any coalition activities," Itamar Ben Gvir said in a party statement, while vowing to resign altogether if a ceasefire became permanent.

Egypt has called for an immediate, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that it supports all proposed initiatives that lead to reaching it.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed and 15 wounded on Thursday in an Israeli strike on south Beirut, after the Israeli military said it was carrying out "precise strikes" in the capital.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Beirut's southern suburbs killed two people and wounded 15, including a woman in critical condition," a ministry statement said. A source close to Hezbollah said the strike targeted the head of the group's drone unit.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that there was a risk of all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel but added that a diplomatic solution was still viable.

"We now face the risk of an all-out war. Another full-scale war (could) be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon," Austin said after a meeting with his British and Australian counterparts in London.

"So let me be clear, Israel and Lebanon can choose a different path, despite the sharp escalation in recent days, a diplomatic solution is still viable," Austin said.

Asked about red lines for US support to Israel, Austin said the United States would not change its commitment to help Israel protect itself and its sovereign territory.

(Reuters)

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Thursday called on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel in order to halt bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza.

"Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank," Abbas said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Israel said on Thursday it had secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the United States package to support its ongoing military efforts.

The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement, which has already been received and earmarked for critical military purchases, and $5.2 billion designated for air defense systems including the Iron Dome anti-missile system and an advanced laser system.

(Reuters)

The facade of Denmark's foreign ministry in Copenhagen was sprayed with anti-Israeli slogans Thursday, police said.

Police told AFP in a statement that they had been made aware early Thursday that a foreign ministry building had been "vandalized with political graffiti".

Messages such as "Boycott Israel" and "Israel kills children" was spray-painted on the wall in red.

Pictures from news agency Ritzau showed cleaners removing the paint and words. Police said they were securing video images and conducting technical investigations.

Israel's military said about 40 projectiles crossed from Lebanon within several minutes on Thursday, as Israel pounded Hezbollah targets across the border.

"Approximately 40 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory" after sirens sounded in the Galilee area starting at 4:06 pm (1306 GMT), the military said, adding that several were intercepted.

The Israeli military said Thursday its latest strike on south Beirut killed Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah's drone unit, who a source close to the group had earlier said was the target.

"Following precise intelligence guidance from the Air Force and the Intelligence Division, fighter jets targeted and eliminated (Srur), the commander of Hezbollah's air unit, in Beirut," a military statement said.

An elderly French woman was killed this week when her home collapsed following an explosion in south Lebanon, France's foreign ministry said Thursday.

"We are sorry to announce the death on Monday of an 87-year-old fellow countrywoman in a village near the city of Tyre," the ministry said.

"The building where she lived collapsed following a large explosion nearby."

The ministry said it had received no other indications of French victims.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday accused the Israeli army of treating exhumed bodies in an "inhumane" manner, saying it deposited a container containing scores of dead Palestinians without proper documentation.

The Israeli army rejected the accusation, saying its policy was to treat the bodies of the deceased "with dignity and respect".

"The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased," the army statement said.

"Bodies determined not be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect."

However the Gaza health ministry said the Israeli army sent back a container on Wednesday containing 88 bodies "without any data or information that could help identify" them.

The ministry accused Israel of "exhuming graves and stealing bodies", saying it held Israel "fully responsible for the inhumane and unethical treatment of the bodies"

Israel has regularly taken dead bodies out of Gaza.

Civil defence rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike on Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people, with the Israeli military claiming it had targeted a Hamas command centre.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were "15 martyrs, including children and women, and dozens wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza".

Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.

The military said it carried out "precise strikes" targeting Hamas members operating inside what it said was a command-and-control centre at the Al-Faluja school.

AFP was unable to verify what was targeted immediately, and the military statement did not provide information on casualties.

Israel's military said it conducted an exercise simulating manoeuvres in Lebanon on Thursday.

The military said the exercise of its 7th brigade took place a few kilometres from the Lebanese border.

(Reuters)

The Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut targeted the head of Hezbollah's drone unit, a source close to the party told AFP, without specifying whether he was killed or injured.

"The Israeli strike targeted the commander of the drone unit, Mohammad Srour, known as Abu Saleh, whose fate is not yet known," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 41,534 people have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza, now approaching its 12th month.

The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,092 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

The Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut hit an area near the al-Qaem mosque in Haret Hreik, according to our correspondent Rita El-Jammal.

This is a site close to the strike carried out last Friday which killed a significant number of commanders from Hezbollah's Radwan force.

Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that 20 people, almost all Syrians, were killed in an overnight Israeli strike in east Lebanon after the Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah targets in the area.

An "Israeli enemy strike on the village of Yunin" killed "20 people, including 19 Syrian nationals", the health ministry said in a statement, raising an earlier toll of nine dead.

Lebanese government sources told The New Arab's Arabic-language site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that there was "optimism" about reaching a ceasefire agreement.

A source said that "Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, currently in New York, was intensifying his international consultations to pressure Israel to stop its aggression".

The source said the ongoing efforts were "intensive and suggest positivity", adding that the aim was to cease the attacks so that diplomatic discussions could take place to determine the next phase.

Mikati welcomed the joint call initiated by the United States and France, supported by the European Union and several Western and Arab countries, to establish a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon. 

"The key lies in implementation through Israel's commitment to enforcing international resolutions," he said about the UNSC Resolution 1071.

Syrian security sources said over 22,000 people had crossed from Lebanon into Syria via two of the countries' border crossings this week as Israeli airstrikes pound Lebanon.

"More than 6,000 Lebanese and around 15,000 Syrians" have entered through the main Jdeidet Yabus border, known on the Lebanese side as the Masnaa crossing, one security source said, requesting anonymity, while a second security source reported "around 1,000 Lebanese and some 500 Syrians have passed" through a second crossing.

The UK is reportedly closely monitoring Beirut’s international airport as fears loom that it may be forced to close as fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah, which might lead to an evacuation of British and other foreign nationals from Lebanon - The Guardian reports.

Defence sources told the publication said that halts to commercial flights out of the country would be a "big trigger" to launch what might be an international evacuation by sea.

An Israeli strike on Thursday hit the Syrian end of a small bridge that provides a crossing into Lebanon, Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Hamieh said he did not immediately know whether the crossing was still usable.

(Reuters)

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday there would be no ceasefire with Lebanon's Hezbollah after the US and its allies proposed a 21-day halt to the fighting.

"There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Katz said in a post on social media platform X, referring to tens of thousands who have been displaced.

לא תהיה הפסקת אש בצפון. נמשיך להילחם נגד ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בכל העוצמה עד לניצחון והשבת תושבי הצפון בביטחון לבתיהם.

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) September 26, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday his government had not responded to a push by the United States and its allies for a 21-day ceasefire in Israel's fight with Hezbollah.

"It is an American-French proposal, which the prime minister has not even responded to," said a statement from Netanyahu's office, adding that he had ordered the army "to continue the fighting with full force".

Twenty-three Syrian refugees were killed in Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building housing workers, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported Thursday.

State-run National News Agency quoted the village’s mayor, Ali Kassas, as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled out from under the rubble, adding that four other Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the same airstrike late Wednesday in the village of Younine.

Turkey is making preparations for the possible evacuation of its citizens and foreign nationals from Lebanon, as cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah continues there, a Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday.

The military has the "capability and resources to carry out any mission assigned to it for the safe evacuation of our citizens or foreign nationals from Lebanon," the source said during a briefing.

"Preliminary planning and preparations for a potential evacuation operation are being made," the person said, adding Turkey had successfully completed such operations before and was closely following developments in Lebanon.

(Reuters)

Israel's military said on Thursday that about 45 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon as cross-border strikes continued amid a push for a ceasefire.

"Approximately 45 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas," a military statement said, adding that Israeli warplanes continued to strike Hezbollah targets "in several areas in southern Lebanon".

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said Thursday that it expected Lebanon's economy to decline further in 2024 because of geopolitical turmoil.

Lebanon's economy will contract by one percent in 2024, the EBRD predicted, heavily revising its estimation made in May that the struggling economy would grow slightly.

Israel's war on Gaza has already impacted neighbouring countries' economic growth, and fighting is now heightening in Lebanon.

"Any escalation will certainly weigh down on growth," Beata Javorcik, the EBRD's chief economist, told AFP.

The country, already facing difficult economic conditions and sky-high inflation, has lost more than 40 percent of its GDP since 2018, the bank said in a report.

The US Department of Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned more than a dozen entities and vessels over their involvement in the shipment of Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia on behalf of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.

Four ships associated with the fleet of Syrian shipping magnate Abdul Jalil Mallah, who was sanctioned by the US in 2021, and his brother, Luay al-Mallah, were among the vessels included in Wednesday's action, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Luay al-Mallah was designated under US sanctions on Wednesday.

The brothers have "continued to use their shipping empire to support Iran's malign activities and those of its proxies," Treasury said.

"Iran continues to rely heavily on the illicit sale of oil and liquid petroleum gas by the (Revolutionary Guards) and Lebanese Hezbollah to fund its terrorist proxies and destabilizing activities," Bradley T. Smith, the acting under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in the statement.

(Reuters)

There is no formal mediation track working towards a ceasefire in Lebanon yet, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a press briefing on Thursday following days of violence between Hezbollah and Israel.

He said he was not aware of a "direct link" between a 21-day Lebanon ceasefire proposal and a Gaza ceasefire proposal on which Qatar had worked extensively alongside Egypt and the United States.

(Reuters)

Hardline partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition on Thursday rejected proposals from the United States and France that would see a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon to allow time for a diplomatic solution to be reached.

Netanyahu, who left Israel on Thursday to address the United Nations, has yet to respond directly to the ceasefire proposal. Before leaving, he repeated pledges to ensure that tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from northern border areas can return home.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads one of two nationalist-religious factions in the coalition, said Hezbollah should be crushed and that only its surrender would make it possible for the evacuees to return.

"The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows he received and to reorganize for the continuation of the war after 21 days," he said in a statement.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's far-right faction was due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday, but members of the party have already come out against the proposal.

The United States and France, backed by other allies, called on Wednesday for a 21-day ceasefire along the Israel-Lebanon "Blue Line," the demarcation line between the two countries, to allow the parties to negotiate towards a potential diplomatic resolution of the conflict.

(Reuters)

Hamas has called for taking legal action against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for "concealing facts" following a media report suggesting he had rejected findings by US government agencies that Israel "had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza".

A report published by the US-based outlet ProPublica said Blinken had received two reports saying that Israel had "deliberately blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza", but that he and the Biden administration "did not accept either finding".

Hamas accused Blinken and Biden of "complicity" with Israel and "concealing the truth about the starvation of our Palestinian people … from Congress for fear that this would affect the supply of weapons to the occupation army".

In a Telegram statement posted on Wednesday, the group urged the US Congress and international judicial bodies to investigate and take "legal action" against Blinken if warranted.

Officials at the White House said a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel is "close" and will be implemented "in the coming hours".

Speaking to Sky News, the US administration official said: "We have had this conversation with the parties… they're familiar with the texts and we'll let them speak to their actions. We're expecting the deal in the coming hours."

This comes after a joint statement from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar which called for the immediate 21-day ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed early this morning for New York, where he is expected to address the UN General Assembly tomorrow.

According to the website of Channel 12 News, Netanyahu's address to the UN aims to "build Israel's legitimacy in the international arena for the continuation of fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon".

The Ynet news site reported that Netanyahu will not hold any meetings with senior US officials while in New York. 

"However, he will be able to respond to the hateful speeches of the president of Iran, the president of Turkey, the foreign minister of Lebanon and the head of the Palestinian Authority," Ynet added.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) group has launched a drone attack targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat, which Israeli media reported left two people injured.

The Iran-backed group said in a statement on Telegram that the attack had come "in support of our people in Palestine" and later posted a video said to show the launch of several drones aimed at "a vital target in Omm al-Rashrash [Eilat]".

The Israeli army had initially said on X that two drones had entered Eilat "from the east", and one was intercepted.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that "crowds of women and children" were gathering at the Syrian border and that queues of vehicles were also waiting at the border to cross from Lebanon.

The director of civil defence in the western city of Homs said that there were five shelter centres in the governorate ready to receive around 40,000 people and several other reserve shelters that could accommodate 25,000 people.

The Syrian health ministry also announced free emergency medical treatment for those arriving from Lebanon, and that ambulances are waiting at the border to help the injured.

More than half a million Lebanese and Syrian nationals are reported to have been displaced - mostly internally - since Israel began its attacks on Lebanon on Monday.

The Chinese embassy in Lebanon warned Chinese citizens not to travel to the country, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The embassy activated an emergency response plan, issued multiple security alerts, and told citizens to take commercial flights to return to China, the spokesperson said at a regular press briefing.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said on Thursday it hit around 75 Hezbollah "targets" in Lebanon during the night, including ammunition depots of the Lebanese group.

"Overnight, the IDF (Israeli military)... struck approximately 75 terror targets" belonging to Hezbollah "in the area of Bekaa and in southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers" as well as militants and other infrastructure, the military said in a statement.

The United States and its allies pressed for a 21-day ceasefire in the sharp escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has threatened to plunge Lebanon into an all-out war.

Israeli aerial bombardment around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has hit back with barrages of rockets and said a ballistic missile targeted Tel Aviv.

Israel's army chief told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive against Hezbollah, deepening fears that the battle may worsen.

Lebanon's official National News Agency described Israel's bombardment in areas near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon as "the most violent" of recent days.