President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday France had not been consulted and wasn't taking part in the war against Iran, after U.S. leader Donald Trump criticized the country's overflight ban on planes carrying military supplies for the conflict.

An Israeli strike in the Jnah area of Beirut early on Wednesday killed Hezbollah's top commander for Iraq military affairs, Youssef Hashem, a Lebanese security source and a Hezbollah source both told AFP.

The security source said "a senior Hezbollah official, who is the military chief for the Iraq file, named Youssef Hashem, was killed in the strike on the Jnah area in Beirut," adding that "he was in a meeting inside a tent near several vehicles".

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called NATO "the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen" Wednesday following renewed criticism of the group by U.S. President Donald Trump.

"It has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO," Starmer told a press conference, after Trump told the UK's Telegraph newspaper that the alliance was a "paper tiger".

The Lebanese army said its forces have largely withdrawn from some border towns as Israeli troops continue to push a ground invasion into the country.

The military said in a statement that troops had to reposition to prevent being dispersed and cut off from support lines "as a result of the escalation of the Israeli aggression".

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed at least eight people on Tuesday, one of them a paramedic, according to the ministry of health.

In separate statements, the ministry said a strike in Tyre district killed three people and wounded 19 more, while another attack in Sidon district killed four. A third strike in Bint Jbeil district hit a gathering point for the Risala Scouts -- a rescue organization run by Hezbollah ally the Amal movement -- killing a paramedic and wounding 13 other people.

Lebanon denounced what it called Israel's plans for "a new occupation of Lebanese territory" on Tuesday, after Israel said it would establish a "security zone" in the country.

Defense Minister Major General Michel Menassa said the remarks by his counterpart Israel Katz were "no longer mere threats", but reflected "a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the south".

Yemen's Houthis on Wednesday claimed a missile attack targeting Israel that they said was launched jointly with their backer Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group -- the third such attack by the Houthis since they entered the Middle East war.

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen said Wednesday they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles toward Israel.

Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs and a nearby town killed at least seven people, as Israel's military said it had targeted senior Hezbollah members.

The health ministry said an Israeli raid early Wednesday in the Jnah area, which borders Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killed seven people and wounded 26 others.

Ten European countries, including France and the United Kingdom, Tuesday urged all sides to ensure the safety of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon after three peacekeepers were killed in recent days.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the next days of the Iran war will be "decisive" while refusing to rule out U.S. ground forces playing a role in the conflict.