Turkey is sending ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.

Two Turkish navy ships will leave a port in southern Turkish province of Mersin for Beirut on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched targeted raids against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon, expanding its ground operations along the country's coastline after deploying more troops.

"Yesterday (Monday), the 146th Division began limited, localized, targeted operational activities against Hezbollah terror targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon," the military said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

A Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike hit Monday near the country's only airport in Beirut, close to Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the capital.

"Israel conducted an air strike near the airport," the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The French-U.S. proposal for a ceasefire to end fighting in Lebanon remains on the table, with parties continuing to work on it, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday during a visit to Israel.

He said Israel’s security cannot be guaranteed with military force alone and will require a diplomatic solution.

The war in Gaza was always personal for many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh met Monday in Ain el-Tineh with Speaker Nabih Berri, noting that the latter still supports his presidential nomination.

Israel's military struck outside the gates of a hospital in southern Lebanon without warning on Friday, killing seven paramedics and forcing the facility to close, the hospital director told The Associated Press a day after one of the most deadly attacks on health workers in the weeks since fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.

The account of the Friday airstrikes that flung hospital doors off their hinges and shattered glass was the latest to detail attacks that Lebanon's health ministry says have killed dozens of health workers.

It was a year ago when Jomana Siddiqui visited Lebanon, where her father was born — and is now buried. She planned to return there soon; this time, she thought, she would take her two teenage daughters.

Instead, Siddiqui, who lives in California, now worries about relatives there. As she watches from afar the violence and the recent escalation in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, Siddiqui thinks about the people she met during her visit, the kindness and generosity she encountered.

Israel launched a new air and ground offensive in northern Gaza Sunday, hours after pounding Beirut's southern suburbs in the heaviest bombardment since it stepped up its pursuit of Hezbollah last month.

The intensified campaign on two fronts, including an overnight strike on a Gaza mosque that killed 19, came as Israel remained on high alert ahead of memorial events to mark the surprise attack a year ago that triggered the ongoing war.

An Israeli strike that targeted a local firefighting center in Baraachit overnight killed ten firefighters, bringing to 118 the number of rescuers killed in a year, with more than 50 killed by Israeli fire in just a week.

The health ministry said more people were buried under the rubble and the death toll may rise.