Beirut, Lebanon - Lebanon's prime minister accused Israel of rejecting a ceasefire after the Israeli military bombed south Beirut for the first time this week on Friday.

At least 10 strikes hit the southern suburbs before dawn after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings, with AFPTV footage showing explosions and clouds of smoke.

"The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires," Lebanon's National News Agency reported, adding that strikes also targeted Aley, southeast of the capital, and Bint Jbeil in the country's south.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the assault on Lebanon, ahead of Tuesday's US presidential election.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the "expansion" of Israel's attacks, saying they signaled a refusal to engage in truce efforts.

"The Israeli enemy's renewed expansion... and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy's rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire," he said.

The strikes targeted Ghobeiry, Al-Kafaat, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, and the area near the Al-Mujtaba Complex and the old airport road, the NNA reported.

Israel has intensified its bombardment of south Beirut while also conducting deadly strikes elsewhere in Lebanon.

On Thursday, Netanyahu told US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any deal for a ceasefire with Hezbollah must guarantee Israel's long-term security. The pair have since left for Washington, said a source familiar with the matter.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who also met the Americans, emphasized "security arrangements" related to Lebanon and efforts to ensure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

A US-brokered plan reportedly under consideration would see Hezbollah withdraw 20 miles north to the northern side of the Litani river, with Israeli forces pulling back and the Lebanese army, supported by UN peacekeepers, taking over the border.

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Lebanon would be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from rearming itself with imported weapons, and Israel would retain its rights under international law to act in its so-called "self-defense."

Cross-border fire from Lebanon killed seven Israelis on Thursday, as well as four Thai nationals in Metula.

Israel has killed at least 1,829 people in Lebanon since escalating its assault on the country on September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

Israel's military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since it launched a ground invasion of the country on September 30.

The NNA said Israeli strikes on the eastern city of Baalbek on Thursday left six dead and destroyed homes. Six others were killed in raids on Maqna.

Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem – who took over after Israel killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah – has not explicitly linked a Lebanon ceasefire to an end to the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, the group's previous position.

"If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable," he said this week in his first speech as leader.

The Gaza health ministry reported at least nine killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Jabalia and Nuseirat, adding people were still under the rubble.

"The morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah is full" of bodies, mostly women and children "following the massacres committed by the occupation" in Nuseirat, said Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals.

US, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators have long been trying to secure a truce and hostage-prisoner exchange as Israel wages its genocide in Gaza.

Mediators seeking to broker a ceasefire are expected to propose a truce of "less than a month" to the Palestinian group Hamas, a source with knowledge of the talks has told AFP.

The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to the territory, the source added.

But on Thursday, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu reiterated that the group rejected a short-term pause.

"Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one," Nunu said.

Israel has killed at least 43,204 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to data from the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, likely upwards of 186,000 as of July.