Israel and Hezbollah traded fire on Friday after the United States and its allies failed to secure a halt to clashes that have killed more than 700 people in Lebanon this week.

Lebanon Minister of Health Firass Abiad said 25 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the early hours of Friday.

An Israeli air strike on Friday killed five Syrian soldiers near the border with Lebanon, the official news agency SANA reported, citing a military source.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack … on one of our military positions near Kfar Yabus on the Syrian-Lebanese border," SANA quoted the source as saying, adding one other soldier was wounded.

The raid came a day after the Israeli army said its warplanes struck "infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israeli warplanes targeted a crossing linking Syria's Al-Qusayr district to Lebanon, causing "a number of wounded".

The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said it was the first such strike on Syria since Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon's Hezbollah this week.

Strike on Lebanon border town kills nine, including four children

Nine people from the same family in the southern Lebanese border town of Shebaa were also killed in an Israeli strike on Friday, Shebaa Mayor Mohammad Saab said.

Those killed in Shebaa included four children.

About 118,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Monday due to the fighting, according to UN figures.

More than 30,000 have crossed into Syria over the past 72 hours.

"They are crossing from a country at war to one that has faced a crisis conflict for 13 years," a UNHCR representative said.

"We will have to see over the next few days how many more do so."

"Everything is collapsing around us," Lebanese businessman Anis Rubeiz said.

"People are tired mentally … I don't see [hope] on the horizon … or even a ray of light."

The UN decried the escalation in Israeli attacks on Lebanon as "catastrophic" on Friday, warning the country was facing its deadliest period in years.

"The recent escalations in Lebanon are nothing short of catastrophic," Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, said.

"We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning."

More than 1,500 people have been killed in the violence in Lebanon over the past year, according to the country's disaster management unit.

That toll surpasses the 1,200 killed during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which also killed about 160 people in Israel.

More than 700 people have been killed in Lebanon since Monday alone, according to the health ministry.

Hezbollah, Houthis target Israeli cities

Hezbollah said its forces fired a salvo of rockets at the Israeli city of Tiberias on Friday.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it was responding to Israel's "savage" strikes on Lebanese towns and civilians.

The Israeli military said drones and projectiles had crossed its territory from Lebanon.

Yemen's Houthis also said on Friday they had targeted Tel Aviv and Ashkelon with a ballistic missile and a drone in support of Gaza and Lebanon.

The group fired a ballistic missile at a "military target" in the Tel Aviv area and launched a drone towards Ashkelon  north of the Gaza Strip, the Houthi's statement said.

The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile that was fired from Yemen after sirens and explosions were heard early in the day.

The Houthi's military spokesperson said their operations would not halt until Israel's offensives in Gaza and Lebanon stopped.

"We will carry out more military operations against the Israeli enemy in victory for the blood of our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon," Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech.

The Houthis also said on Friday they used 23 ballistic and winged missiles and a drone to target three US destroyers in the Red Sea.

The group said the destroyers were on their way to support Israel.

More ceasefire proposals being considered

The strikes on Friday came after Israel declined a ceasefire proposal by the United States, France and allied nations, including Australia.

On Thursday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for New York where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, his office issued a statement saying the prime minister had ordered Israeli troops to continue fighting with full force in Lebanon.

But Mr Netanyahu later released a statement claiming he would continue ceasefire discussions in the days ahead.

"Our teams met to discuss the US initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes. We will continue those discussions in the coming days," he said.

"Israel shares the aims of the US-led initiative of enabling people along our northern border to return safely and securely to their homes."

"Israel appreciates the US efforts in this regard because the US role is indispensable in advancing stability and security in the region."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel on Thursday that further escalation of the conflict involving Lebanon would only make it harder for civilians to return home on both sides of the border, the State Department said.

"The Secretary discussed the importance of reaching an agreement on the 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border," the State Department said in a statement, referring to talks between Mr Blinken and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer.

"He underscored that further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective [of civilian return] more difficult."

The State Department added that Mr Blinken also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and steps that Israel needed to take to improve delivery of humanitarian assistance in the enclave where nearly the entire 2.3 million population is displaced and facing a hunger crisis.

Saudi Arabia forms global alliance for Israel-Palestine two-state solution

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced a new global alliance to push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The current war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, by Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with a military offensive in Gaza in which more than 41,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.

The alliance includes a number of Arab and Muslim countries and European partners, the Saudi state news agency reported, without specifying which countries had committed to join.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X the first meetings would be in Riyadh and Brussels.

"Implementing the two-state solution is the best solution to break the cycle of conflict and suffering, and enforce a new reality in which the entire region, including Israel, enjoys security and coexistence," Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud was quoted as saying.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week the kingdom would not recognise Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the "crimes of the Israeli occupation" against the Palestinian people.

Reuters/AFP