Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 40 in Baalbek

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 40 people around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley , according to the country's health ministry, and at dusk more strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated since late September, with Israeli troops intensifying bombing on swathes of Lebanon's south and east and making ground incursions into border villages.

US diplomatic efforts to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which included a 60-day ceasefire proposal, faltered last week ahead of the US election in which former President Donald Trump recaptured the White House.

Fires blazed and clouds of black smoke covered the sky over northern Israel after rockets from Lebanon hit Israeli communities.

The Israeli army said some 50 rockets crossed from Lebanon in a barrage that was partly intercepted. There were several impacts on the ground, including a rocket hitting a storage site.

Shortly later, sirens sounded before sunset in Tel Aviv for the second time. The Israeli army said one rocket launched from Lebanon was intercepted.

Meanwhile Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that only developments on the battlefield, not political moves, would bring an end to the hostilities between the Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military.

In a pre-recorded televised address, Qassem said there would be a road to indirect negotiations through the Lebanese state only if Israel stopped its attacks on Lebanon.

"We as the resistance in Hezbollah have only one option, and that is to prevent the occupation from fulfilling its goals," he said.

Qassem said the group would continue to fight and did not want to build hopes on political solutions to the conflict, saying a win for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the US election didn't make a difference to the Lebanese group.