Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Lebanese authorities said Monday that Israel's attacks since March 2 have killed at least 486 people and wounded at least 1,313.

Israel, which kept up attacks against Hezbollah even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire, carried out intensified strikes last week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.

It said it killed the head of Hezbollah's Nasr unit operating in part of southern Lebanon, Abu Hussein Ragheb, on Monday.

Earlier, the Israeli military struck branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a US-sanctioned financial firm mainly operating in Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon's south, east and Beirut's southern suburbs, after issuing evacuation warnings, according to Lebanese state media and AFP correspondents.

The Israeli army said it was "striking Hezbollah infrastructure" in the southern suburbs.

An AFP photographer in the area witnessed a massive explosion, while an armed Hezbollah member fired warning shots into the air to evacuate residents from their homes.

The strikes killed one person, the Lebanese health ministry said in a preliminary toll.

The Israeli army renewed previous orders for people in the area to leave.

Al-Qard al-Hassan is a lifeline for mainly Shia Muslim communities battling a years-long financial crisis in Lebanon that has locked people out of their bank deposits.

It says it has more than 30 branches nationwide, mainly in Hezbollah bastions such as Beirut's southern suburbs, but also in central Beirut and other major cities.

In Lebanon's southern city of Sidon, an area outside of Hezbollah's traditional sphere of influence, an AFP correspondent saw ambulances and civil defence vehicles gather around a branch of Al-Qard al-Hassan.

Israel also bombed the firm's branches during its last war with Hezbollah in 2024, including the one in Sidon.

- 'Collapse' -

In an online meeting with top European diplomats, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that Hezbollah "wanted to bring about the collapse of the Lebanese state... all for the sake of the Iranian regime's calculations".

Aoun described Hezbollah as "an armed group outside the state, which places no value on the interests of Lebanon or the lives of its people".

To stop the war, the president proposed a four-point initiative and called on the international community to help implement it.

It includes "establishing a full truce" with Israel, "logistical support" for the army to disarm Hezbollah, and "direct negotiations under international auspices".

Meanwhile, Israel's army said it had started a "targeted and limited raid in an area in southern Lebanon to locate and eliminate" Hezbollah members and infrastructure.

"This activity is part of the effort to further strengthen forward defensive positions in order to provide an additional layer of protection for residents of northern Israel."

The army also carried out several strikes on different parts of southern Lebanon and near the northeastern city of Hermel, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Israeli tank fire killed a priest in the Christian southern Lebanese town of Al-Qlayaa, according to state media and a medical source.

- 'Path of allegiance' -

Hezbollah on Monday celebrated the choosing of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's new supreme leader.

"We renew our pledge of loyalty to this blessed approach and our steadfastness on the path of allegiance," the group said in a statement.

It also claimed responsibility for at least 10 previous attacks against Israel and its forces, including against troops advancing into Lebanese border towns, as well as a missile salvo on an air base in Haifa.

Earlier Monday, it said it had fought Israeli troops who landed in eastern Lebanon by helicopter, the second such incident since the latest war began.

Lebanon has also registered 517,000 people displaced by the latest fighting.

Israeli strikes on sites belonging to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee in the Tyre and Jwaya areas in south Lebanon killed two paramedics and wounded six, the health ministry said, accusing Israel of "systematic targeting of rescue teams".

Despite the bombing in Beirut, Lebanon's parliament met on Monday and postponed legislative elections by two years due to the conflict.

The polls had been scheduled to take place in May.