In New York, around 30 countries backing the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon voiced concern over the fighting in Lebanon, which was drawn into the war last week when militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which kept up its strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire, has since launched air raids across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas -- an offensive that has left 570 people dead according to the health ministry.

Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said Wednesday that Israeli forces would continue to operate in Lebanon "as long (as) there will be a threat against us".

Hezbollah meanwhile affirmed its "commitment" to the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamanei.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said "the enemy targeted an apartment in the Aisha Bakkar area" in central Beirut, a densely populated neighbourhood close to one of the city's biggest shopping malls.

AFPTV's live broadcast captured the sound of an air strike followed by a fireball erupting in an apartment within a multi-storey residential building in Beirut.

An AFP correspondent saw destroyed walls in the building's seventh and eighth floors, with damaged cars nearby and security forces present at the scene.

When the strike hit, "I ran from room to room, pulled my wife and daughter out of the rooms and hid them behind a wall, then the second strike hit", said Fawzi Asmar, owner of a bakery on the street where the strike took place.

- 'Who do I blame?' -

Samer Knio, a civil defence paramedic, said glass and debris fell on his team as they were evacuating the dead and wounded from the scene, "but God protected us".

Lebanese authorities said Wednesday that more than 780,000 people had been registered as displaced, with more than 120,000 staying in official shelters.

Some residents fear being caught in Israeli air raids targeting people sheltering nearby.

"We don't know who they're targeting. Maybe someone related to something, maybe not," Amal Hisham, 46, said. "Who do I blame? Who do I not blame?"

The health ministry has announced an initial toll of four people wounded in the strike -- the second in central Beirut after the Israeli army last week targeted a hotel, with Iran later saying that raid killed four of its diplomats.

Jerome Bonnafont, the French ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York that "we troop contributing countries to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, joined by several other member states, express our deep alarm at the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon".

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army also resumed strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs after issuing a new evacuation warning to residents of two neighbourhoods.

AFPTV live footage showed black smoke rising from three sites over the area following strikes.

- Red Cross paramedic -

The Israeli army also said it had carried out "an additional wave of air strikes" in the area overnight.

AFPTV images show destroyed buildings and severely damaged apartment blocks nearby.

Israeli air raids also continued in southern and eastern Lebanon, with the NNA reporting strikes in several areas.

The health ministry said seven people were killed in a strike on the east Lebanon town of Tamnin al-Tahta, while "successive raids" overnight on the southern town of Qana in the Tyre district killed five people.

In Hennawiyeh, also in the Tyre area, the ministry said an overnight Israeli strike wounded two people who were then killed in a subsequent attack along with a rescue worker who attended the scene.

It also announced the death of a Red Cross paramedic from wounds sustained when "the Israeli enemy targeted the ambulance he was travelling in... on a rescue mission" two days earlier in Majdal Zoun, also in the Tyre district.

An AFP correspondent saw mourners, including some in Red Cross uniform, taking part in the paramedic's funeral procession on Wednesday in Tyre city.

The health ministry on Wednesday said 14 healthcare workers were among the 570 people killed in Israeli strikes since March 2.

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