Rescuers search for survivors in Lebanese capital as new Israeli strikes hit south

Rescuers searched for survivors under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Beirut on Thursday as Lebanon observed a day of mourning after Israeli strikes across the country killed more than 200.

The Israeli military carried out further strikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least five people in Abassiyeh, a village near Tyre, according to the civil defense agency.

Israel's simultaneous strikes on Wednesday, carried out without warning and targeting the heart of Beirut and several other regions of Lebanon, killed at least 203 people and wounded around 1,000, according to the most recent toll from the health ministry.

Hezbollah, for its part, announced that it had fired rockets at northern Israel overnight in response to what it called "the enemy's violation of the ceasefire".

"This response will continue until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people stops," Hezbollah said.

It was the first action announced by the Iran-backed armed group since the announcement of a ceasefire between Iran and the United States a day prior.

In the Lebanese capital, rescue workers were still combing the rubble of two buildings hit in residential neighborhoods, according to AFP journalists.

An Israeli strike early Wednesday targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold from which most residents have fled after more than a month of war.

An AFP photographer saw one building in the area completely blown apart and another half destroyed in the Shiyyah neighborhood, on the outskirts of the southern suburbs.

In the south of Lebanon, Israel struck near a strategic bridge three times between Wednesday and Thursday, partially blocking it, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.

The Lebanese Army had earlier closed the bridge after an "Israeli threat to target it".

It is the last bridge linking the north and south sides of the Litani River in the Tyre region, where thousands of families have remained despite evacuation warnings issued by Israel.

Diplomatic calls are multiplying to expand the regional ceasefire to Lebanon, with Israel and the U.S. insisting that the country is not covered by the truce.

"The ongoing military activity in Lebanon poses a grave risk to the ceasefire," said the spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron voiced concern over the strikes in Lebanon, telling his American and Iranian counterparts that halting them is a "necessary condition for the ceasefire to be credible and lasting."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "outraged by the devastating death and destruction" caused on Wednesday by the Israeli strikes.