At least 10 strikes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, targeting buildings in a Hezbollah stronghold after the Israeli army ordered evacuations.
The escalation comes just a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. officials to explore a potential deal to end the war in Lebanon, as casualties continue to rise on both sides of the border.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) TV footage captured intense explosions, with plumes of smoke billowing across the suburban skyline.
"The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled, in addition to the outbreak of fires," Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The strikes targeted Ghobeiry and al-Kafaat suburbs, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of the al-Mujtaba Complex, and the old airport road, the agency added.
The Israeli military has repeatedly bombarded southern Beirut in recent weeks while also carrying out deadly strikes elsewhere in the capital and across Lebanon.
During talks on Thursday, Netanyahu told U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any Lebanon deal must ensure Israel's long-term security.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also met with the Americans, saying in a statement that their discussions focused on "security arrangements related to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to secure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza."
According to Israeli media reports citing government sources, the U.S.-brokered plan would require Hezbollah forces to withdraw about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border, north of the Litani River.
Israeli troops would withdraw from Lebanon, and the Lebanese army, alongside U.N. peacekeepers, would then assume control of the border.
Lebanon would be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from rearming, and Israel would retain its rights under international law to act in self-defense.
Analysts say Israel's campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah has strengthened its position in reaching a deal.
Also on Thursday, Israeli medics and a local leader reported seven Israelis killed by cross-border fire from Lebanon – one of the highest one-day tolls in Israel in more than a year of cross-border exchanges.
Four Thais in the northern Israeli town of Metula were also killed by rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Thailand's foreign minister.
The Metula regional council reported that one local farmer and four foreign farmworkers were killed in the strike.
Since the escalation on Sept. 23, following tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges that Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, the war has killed at least 1,829 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Health Ministry figures.
The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, said Thursday that Israel has killed at least one child per day and wounded an average of 10 daily since Oct. 4.
Israel’s military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since ground operations began on Sept. 30.
The NNA reported that the Israeli army struck east Lebanon's main city of Baalbek on Thursday, two hours after issuing an evacuation order. The operation reportedly killed six people and destroyed several houses and buildings.
The NNA also said six others were killed in raids on the town of Maqna, which was not included in the Israeli evacuation order.
Hezbollah's new leader, Naim Qassem – who took the reins after Israel killed his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah – has not explicitly linked a Lebanon cease-fire to an end to the fighting in Gaza, as the group previously insisted.
"If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under conditions, we see as appropriate," he said in his first speech since taking over on Tuesday.
U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators have long been trying to secure a truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange in Israel's war in Gaza.
Mediators working to broker a cease-fire are expected to propose a truce of "less than a month" to the Palestinian group Hamas, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.
The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to Gaza, the source added.
But on Thursday, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu reiterated that the group rejected a short-term pause.
"Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one," al-Nunu said.
Hamas’s Oct. 7 incursion on Israel last year triggered the war, resulting in 1,206 deaths.
Israel’s retaliatory genocidal bombardment and ground campaign have killed 43,204 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Health Ministry data, which the United Nations confirms as reliable.
