A Paris conference Thursday on aid for conflict-stricken Lebanon raised around $800 million for humanitarian aid and a further $200 million to support the country's armed forces, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has expressed "deep concern" to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant over strikes on the Lebanese army after three soldiers were killed over the weekend.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Thursday that only the state should carry weapons, as he pushed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Lebanese authorities must deploy over (all) Lebanese territory and weapons should be carried only by the state and the Lebanese army," Mikati said on the sidelines of a Lebanon aid conference in Paris, without explicitly calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the only group that did not lay down its arms after the end of the Lebanese civil war.

Hezbollah said Thursday it targeted an Israeli military base near Haifa, the second time within 24 hours it has said it targeted the facility.

Hezbollah said it was clashing at close range on Thursday with Israeli troops in a south Lebanon border village, claiming it had hit two tanks.

Syrian state media said Israeli air strikes hit a residential area of Damascus and a military site in Homs Thursday, killing a soldier and wounding seven other people.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a car on a highway leading to the capital Beirut, as Israel and Hezbollah fight a month-old war.

"An enemy drone targeted a car on the Kahale road," the NNA said, referring to a mountain area on the main highway between Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday against "illusory" attempts to defeat Russia on the battlefield ahead of his first meeting with United Nations chief Antonio Guterres in more than two years for talks set to focus on the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia moved to ratify a key defense pact with North Korea on Thursday, while South Korea warned it would not "sit idle" if Pyongyang deployed thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Germany pledged 96 million euros ($103 million) in additional aid to crisis-hit Lebanon at a Paris aid conference Thursday as conflict rages between Israel and Hezbollah.