Israeli air strikes battered Lebanon on Friday, sending the death toll since Monday up to at least 217, according to Lebanese authorities, as the premier warned "a humanitarian disaster is looming".
The Israeli military renewed its strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs Friday afternoon, Lebanese state media reported, following night raids that left heavy damage in the area after residents fled en masse in response to Israeli evacuation warnings.
Israel says it has killed "over 70" members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
A live broadcast by AFP showed plumes of smoke rising above buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, a typically densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway.
Speaking to foreign ambassadors Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said "the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented".
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 217 people have been killed and 798 wounded since Israel's expanded attacks on Monday, with more than 95,000 people displaced.
"Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose," Salam said.
"Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them," he added.
On Monday, the Lebanese government banned Hezbollah's military activities after it launched rockets on Israel to "avenge" Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, pulling Lebanon into the Middle East war.
On Friday, in a message posted in Hebrew on the group's Telegram channels, Hezbollah told Israelis to evacuate all localities "located within 5 kilometers of the border".
Israel has continued to strike dozens of areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including Sidon, where five people were killed according to Lebanon's health ministry.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw extensive damage in the targeted apartment and shattered glass on the street.
Rescue workers meanwhile recovered a body from under the rubble and collected body parts scattered around the area.
Further south in Tyre, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the NNA reported a major strike.
- Southern suburbs -
The Israeli military announced Friday that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the past four days.
It added that Hezbollah had fired around 70 rockets toward Israel since midnight, and that the Lebanese group had launched coordinated attacks with Iran on Thursday.
Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighborhood of Beirut's suburbs Friday, while the buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed.
After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area, whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000.
Mohammad, 39, a resident of the southern suburbs, fled with his family when the bombing began on Monday.
Returning on Thursday to check on his home and collect belongings just minutes before the Israeli evacuation warning, he said he "went down and found total chaos".
Fatima al-Masri, 45, also escaped the southern suburbs and has been sheltering in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square for four days.
"We want to eat and drink... we want to go to the bathroom," she said, adding that she "came here because the schools are full".
- Strikes on south -
Since Monday, Israel has ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometers of southern Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border.
The Israeli army chief on Thursday said he ordered forces deployed in southern Lebanon to expand their control inside south Lebanon.
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed on Friday new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa.
Hezbollah also announced at dawn on Friday that it had targeted a cluster of Israeli vehicles advancing toward the town of Khiam, about six kilometers from the border, and "forced them to retreat".
