Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people, including seven children, in the Jbeil district village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has paid a secret visit to Russia in a bid to reach a settlement with Lebanon, the Israeli army radio reported.

A wave of Israeli strikes on east and south Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 33 people, the health ministry said, as Israel intensified its air campaign against Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has accused a group of soldiers of burning a Lebanese flag in southern Lebanon where they are fighting Hezbollah.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to their country since Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment on wide swathes of Lebanon in September. Many who fled to Lebanon after the war in Syria started in 2011 did not want to go back.

But for officials in Lebanon, the influx of returnees comes as a silver lining to the war between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced some 1.2 million in Lebanon. Some in Syria hope the returning refugees could lead to more international assistance and relief from western sanctions.

An Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre left at least seven people dead, among them five siblings, three of whom were deaf and mute, officials and a resident said Saturday. Elsewhere in Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes killed 31 people.

The rise in Tyre's death toll came as Israel's air force carried out airstrikes on different parts of southern and eastern Lebanon on Saturday hours after Beirut's southern suburbs were pounded by jets, destroying several buildings, state media reported.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has discussed Lebanon and Gaza in his first call with his new Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, the Pentagon said.

Rescuers did not expect to find two-year-old Ali Khalifeh alive after an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed his entire family and left him trapped under the rubble for 14 hours.

Israeli air strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs overnight Friday shortly after Israel's military warned residents to leave parts of the area.

An air raid hit near the Lebanese University in Hadath and another on the Burj al-Barajneh suburb.