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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese state media reported on Wednesday a third wave of Israeli raids on Hizbollah's south Beirut bastion in 24 hours, while the health ministry said another strike south of the capital killed eight people.

"Enemy aircraft targeted Beirut's southern suburbs", the official National News Agency (NNA) said, reporting six strikes.

AFPTV footage showed plumes of black smoke rising over the area following the strikes, about an hour after Israel's army issued evacuation warnings.

People hastily drove away from the area following the evacuation calls, with residents firing gunshots in the air to warn civilians to flee, an AFP photographer said.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli strike on hit Aramoun, a densely-packed area south of Beirut which is located outside Hizbollah's traditional strongholds.

The health ministry said that eight people had been killed in the strike.

"Body parts were recovered from the site and their identities are being verified," it added, after the NNA said the strike targeted a residential apartment at dawn.

An AFP photographer saw rescuers pulling bodies out of the rubble in Aramoun, where the four-storey building had partially collapsed.

The latest strikes came on the day that Israel's new defence minister told senior military commanders there would be no easing-up in the war against Hizbollah as he toured the northern border with Lebanon.

"We will make no ceasefires, we will not take our foot off the pedal, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of our war objectives," Israel Katz said on his first visit to the border region since his appointment last week.

"We will continue to strike Hizbollah everywhere," Katz added.

He said that Israel would not "allow any [ceasefire] arrangement that does not include achieving the objectives of the war", including "disarming Hizbollah, pushing them beyond the Litani River", which flows across southern Lebanon, "and creating conditions for the safe return" of residents of northern Israeli towns and villages to their homes.

Following Katz's comments, the Israeli army said air raid sirens were activated across central and northern Israel, adding that it had intercepted some of the "five projectiles" that had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

Hizbollah and Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,360 people have been killed since October last year when Hizbollah and Israel began engaging in cross-border clashes in the wake of the deadly attacks by its Gaza-based ally Hamas.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — US top diplomat Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Israel to implement "real and extended pauses" in fighting in Gaza to allow for aid deliveries, as a US-imposed deadline to improve conditions in the territory expired.

Blinken said Israel had taken multiple steps to address the humanitarian crisis ahead of the deadline set by outgoing President Joe Biden's administration -- but that more was needed.

"We need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it," Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels.

Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since Israel launched a sweeping assault on the territory following Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.

Last month, Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel setting a November 13 deadline to comply with US law on permitting humanitarian assistance, or risk a cut to military aid.

"The intent was to inject a sense of urgency with Israel to take necessary steps to address the dire humanitarian situation," Blinken said on Wednesday.

Israel has since moved to implement 12 of the 15 steps the US urged action on, but "three big issues" still needed to be addressed.

Enacting extended pauses in fighting was one.

The other two were allowing commercial trucks into the Palestinian territory and rescinding evacuation orders so that people could return to an area after Israel completed operations there, he said.

"Short of ending the war, which we believe now is the time to move to that, we have to see these humanitarian steps fully implemented," Blinken said.

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 43,665 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel announced the opening of an additional aid crossing into Gaza Tuesday, on the eve of a US deadline to boost relief deliveries, but aid agencies said it was not enough.

Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of war following Hamas' unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

The United States last month warned Israel to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk a cut to its military support.

A day before the deadline, the Israeli military said it opened the Kissufim crossing "as part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid" to Gaza.

"Food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment" were delivered to central and southern Gaza, the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

The army published video showing lorries loaded with sacks and pallets entering Gaza.

But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and eight humanitarian groups said Israel was still not doing enough to get aid in.

The eight organisations including Oxfam and Save The Children said Israel "failed to comply" with US demands -- "at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza".

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023," they said in a joint statement.

Aid at 'lowest level' 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warned Israel last month it had 30 days to ramp up aid deliveries to Gaza or risk losing some military assistance from its chief arms supplier.

The US letter, dated October 13, was sent ahead of the US presidential election won by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.

Government spokesman David Mencer said on Tuesday that Israel took the letter "extremely seriously" and was "willing to get as much aid as possible through".

But the previous day, a senior military official said Israel had "a responsibility to make sure that terrorism does not enter Gaza under the auspices of aid", adding that the army had a few hours earlier found "a bag of flour filled with Kalashnikovs and ammunition" in a humanitarian convoy.

Asked on Tuesday about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of the US deadline, Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA emergencies officer, said "aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months".

The eight aid groups called on "the US government to make an immediate determination that Israel is in violation of its assurances".

The situation is at its worst in northern Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment at the weekend said famine was imminent.

Deadly strikes 

Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 43,665 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

"My uncle's family, they were all killed, there was no one left," a visibly exhausted Umm Muhammad Awda told AFP in Gaza City.

"Since the dawn prayer they were shelling us," she added.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that at least 14 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

The Israeli forces announced the deaths of four soldiers in northern Gaza, bringing its losses in the territory to 376 since the start of ground operations on October 27, 2023.

Israel, Hizbollah trade fire 

Deadly Israeli strikes also pounded Lebanon where since September 23, Israel has stepped up its bombing campaign, mainly targeting Hizbollah strongholds in south Beirut and in the east and south.

Rocket fire from Lebanon killed two men in northern Israel, first responders said.

The Israeli military said a barrage of 10 rockets was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, some of which were intercepted, while "others fell in the area".

Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah said it targeted an air base near Tel Aviv.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

More than 3,280 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, the majority of them since late September, according to ministry figures.

AIN YAACOUB, Lebanon — A day after Israeli warplanes flattened their building, Lebanese residents helped rescuers scour the rubble for survivors, still reeling from the rare strike in the country's far north.

The bombing killed at least eight people in Ain Yaacoub, one of the northernmost villages Israel has struck, far from Lebanon's war-ravaged southern border.

"They hit a building where more than 30 people lived without any evacuation warning," said Mustafa Hamza, who lives near the site of the strike. "It's an indescribable massacre."

After nearly a year of steady cross-border fire, Israel intensified its attacks on Hizbollah in September, mainly targeting the Iran-backed group in its strongholds of south Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon.

Following Monday's strike on Ain Yaacoub, residents joined rescuers, using bare hands to sift through dust and chunks of concrete, hoping to find survivors.

The health ministry said the death toll was expected to rise.

On the ground, people could be seen pulling body parts from the rubble in the morning, following a long night of search operations.

In near-darkness, rescuers had struggled to locate survivors, using mobile phone lights and car headlamps in a remote area where national grid power is scarce.

'People are shocked' 

For years, Syrians fleeing war in their home country, along with more recently displaced Lebanese escaping Israeli strikes, sought refuge in the remote Akkar region near the Syrian border, once seen as a haven.

"The situation is dire. People are shocked," Hamza told AFP. "People from all over the region have come here to try to help recover the victims."

The village, inhabited mostly by Sunni Muslims and Christians, lies far from the strongholds of Hizbollah, a Shiite Muslim movement.

A security source said Monday's air strike targeted a Hizbollah member who had relocated with his family to the building in Ain Yaacoub from south Lebanon.

Local official Rony Al Hage told AFP that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since the full-blown Israel-Hizbollah war erupted in September.

After Israel ramped up its campaign of air raids, it also sent ground troops into south Lebanon.

"The people who were in my house were my uncle, his wife, and my sisters... A Syrian woman and her children who had been living here for 10 years, were also killed," said Hashem Hashem, the son of the building's owner.

His relatives had fled Israel's onslaught on south Lebanon seeking a safe haven in the Akkar region more than a month ago, he said.

Hizbollah operatives

The Israeli war on Lebanon has displaced at least 1.3 million people, nearly 900,000 of them inside the country, the United Nations migration agency says.

Israeli strikes outside Hizbollah strongholds have repeatedly targeted buildings where displaced civilians lived, with Lebanese security officials often telling AFP the targets were Hizbollah operatives.

On Sunday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat -- a rare strike north of the capital.

Earlier this month, authorities said an Israeli strike on a residential building killed at least 20 people in Barja, a town south of Beirut that is outside Hizbollah's area of influence.

The war erupted after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hizbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, with most of the deaths coming since late September.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese state-run media said Israel struck a house in the northern Akkar region on Monday, one of the farthest attacks from the border in its war against Hizbollah militants.

Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign mainly targeting Hizbollah strongholds in Lebanon's east, south and south Beirut, rarely targeting the country's north.

"An enemy strike targeted a house in the village of Ain Yaacoub," some 150 kilometres from Israel, said Lebanon's official National News Agency.

Local official Rony Al Hage told AFP that "displaced people lived in the two-storey house" and that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since the full-blown war erupted. After it escalated its air raids, Israel sent ground troops in against Hizbollah in south Lebanon on September 30.

"Rescue and rubble-removing operations are still ongoing," Hage said.

Residents of a nearby village heard a loud explosion and ambulance sirens.

A local Facebook page broadcast a live video feed it said was from the scene of the strike that showed a completely destroyed house, while people removed the rubble with bare hands, using their phones as flashlights.

Lebanon's health ministry earlier said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people on Monday.

The Lebanon war erupted after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hizbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. That attack triggered the ongoing Gaza war.

More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border fire began last year, according to Lebanon's health ministry, but most of the deaths have come since late September.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.

"Enemy aircraft launched a strike on a house in the Al-Laqees neighbourhood" of the city, the state-run National News Agency said.

Earlier, NNA had reported a rare Israeli strike north of Beirut, on the Shiite-majority village of Almat, which is located in a mostly Christian region.

Overnight and Sunday morning, Israel conducted a series of air strikes on southern and eastern villages and locations, NNA said.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed 20 people in eastern Lebanon and 13 in the south, according to health ministry figures.

Israel intensified its air campaign mainly targeting Hizbollah bastions in Lebanon's east and south and in southern Beirut on September 23 and a week later sent in ground troops.

The escalation came after nearly a year of low-intensity, cross-border attacks by Hizbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

More than 3,130 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border exchanges began, according to Lebanon's health ministry, most of them since September 23.

WASHINGTON — US warplanes staged multiple strikes Saturday night on Iran-backed Huthi advanced weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said.

The facilities contained various weapons used to target military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to information provided to AFP by the Pentagon.

The Huthi-run Al Masirah television network reported three American and British raids that targeted the capital Sanaa's southern Al Sabeen district.

"Eyewitnesses said they heard intense flying, along with explosions in different parts of the capital Sanaa," Al Masirah said.

The United States and Britain have repeatedly struck Huthi targets in Yemen since January in response to attacks by the rebels on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The rebels say the strikes, which have disrupted maritime traffic in a globally important waterway, target vessels linked to Israel and are intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.

The attacks have seriously disrupted the Red Sea route which carries 12 percent of global trade.

In more than 100 Huthi attacks over nearly a year, four sailors have been killed and two ships have sunk, while one vessel and its crew remain detained since being hijacked last November.

Saturday's strikes come three days after the Huthi's leader Abdul Malik Al Huthi criticised US president-elect Donald Trump for supporting Israel.

Huthi said that normalisation deals between Arab countries and Israel brokered by Trump had failed to bring an end the Middle East conflict and that he would fail again in his second term.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency on Sunday said 30 people, including 13 children, were killed in two Israeli strikes on two houses in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The first strike early Sunday hit a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza, killing "at least 25" people, including 13 children, and injuring more than 30, the civil defence said.

Since October 6, the Israeli military has been engaged in a withering air and ground assault on areas of northern Gaza, including Jabalia, saying they are seeking to stop Hamas militants from regrouping there.

Another strike on the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City killed five people, with others still missing in the aftermath.

"A number of civilians are still under the rubble," the agency added.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,552 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.