Israel has approved an $827-million emergency budget allocation for military purchases, Israeli media reported Sunday, as the war with Iran entered its third week.

Hezbollah said it was involved in "direct clashes" with Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam late on Saturday.

In a statement, it said the clashes were ongoing, having started at 9:20 pm (1920 GMT) and involved "light and medium weapons as well as rocket-propelled projectiles".

U.S. President Donald Trump urged other nations to help secure a vital shipping lane choked off by the war with Iran that showed no signs of slowing on Saturday as strikes hit the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility.

France's foreign ministry said Saturday there was "no French plan" to stop the fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday on a visit to Beirut that diplomatic channels remained open to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah and urged the international community to support Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun has presided over a meeting in Baabda with the Lebanese delegation headed by Simon Karam that will possibly conduct direct, U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel, a diplomatic source told the Lebanese news portal East News.

Hezbollah suffered heavy losses in a war with Israel more than a year ago, but the Iran-backed group has now regrouped only to end up fighting what it has called an "existential battle" and which some warn could be its last.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the militant group, funded and armed by Iran, attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said Saturday the war with Tehran was entering a "decisive phase", praising U.S. strikes on what Washington called military targets on Iran's Kharg Island oil export hub.

U.S. President Donald Trump said overnight that Iran has been "totally defeated" in the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against the country and wanted a deal he would not accept, despite Iranian officials pledging to continue the fight.

Israeli shells hit a United Nations peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon on Friday, state media reported, as Israel and Hezbollah fought their latest war.