Meanwhile, US' Antony Blinken is on his 11th visit to the Middle East region and is trying to revive efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
Amid attempts for a ceasefire in Gaza, strikes in Israel, Lebanon and the Hamas-led state continued on Wednesday. The attacks from either side have intensified following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in the recent past.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his 11th visit to the Middle East region since the start of the war on Gaza. Blinken is trying to restart the efforts to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Israel confirmed the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's successor Hashem Safieddine, who was the head of the militant group's Executive Council.
Safieddine was also a member of the Shura Council, which is Hezbollah's senior-most military-political forum, responsible for decision and policy-making in the militant organisation.
Safieddine was Nasrallah's cousin and had a prominent influence on the decision-making aspects within the group. Hashem used to fill in as the Secretary-General of Hezbollah during times when Nasrallah was absent from Lebanon.
The Israeli army said that Safieddine along with Hezbollah's Intelligence Headquarters commander Ali Hussien Hazima was eliminated during a strike on the group's main intelligence HQ in Dahieh around three weeks ago.
Hazima was apparently responsible for directing many attacks on Israeli soldiers.
Israeli airstrikes in and around Beirut caused severe damage to Lebanon's largest hospital and killed 18 people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The attack came hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said that 57 others were injured in the airstrikes which hit late Monday, destroying several buildings facing the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut.
The Israeli army said that it struck a Hezbollah target and clarified that it did not target the hospital itself.
Staff at another Beirut hospital feared that they would be targeted after Israel alleged that Hezbollah was hiding a massive amount of cash and gold in its basement, without providing any proof. The director of the Sahel General Hospital however denied the allegations, inviting journalists to visit the hospital and take a look for themselves. "We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours," hospital director Mazen Alame said, "There is nothing under the hospital."
The Iran-backed militant group on Tuesday said that it was responsible for the drone attack that targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence during the weekend.
Hezbollah's chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told reporters in Beirut that if in the previous attack, the PM was not hurt, "the coming days and nights and the (battle) fields are between us". He hinted at Hezbollah carrying out such attempts in the future.
Afif said that the Lebanese group is fully responsible for the drone attack that targeted Netanyahu's house, adding that the militant outfit did so on its own.
Netanyahu's residence in the coastal town of Caesarea was targeted in a drone attack on Saturday, with no casualties. His office said that neither the PM nor his wife were present in the house at the time.
Hezbollah has been striking Israel since the second day of the war on Gaza, which started on October 7, 2023, with Hamas launching an unprecedented attack on Israel. The Lebanese group has repeatedly said that it will keep striking Israel until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. It has said that its attacks are in support of its ally -- Hamas.
Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens in the country's most populated regions. However, it did not cause significant damage or injuries in the region.
The Israeli military said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel, adding that the country's missile defense system intercepted most. One of the rockets impacted an open area.
The rocket barrage came amid the intensifying strikes from both sides, especially with Israel targeting a Hezbollah-run financial institution in Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his 11th visit to the Middle East region since the start of the war on Gaza, is trying to revive the efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.
Blinken met with Netanyahu and highlighted the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken also pressed on the importance of ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated earlier this month when the former launched a ground offensive in Lebanon.
Blinken's efforts focus on reviving the attempts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, release the hostages held by Hamas and relieve the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have brokered several months of talks between Israel and Hamas, trying to reach a ceasefire deal where the hostages can be released in return for an end to the war. However, both sides have accused each other of constantly making new and unacceptable demands over the last few months, pausing the talks in August.
Hamas has said that even after Yahya Sinwar's killing, its demands remain the same.
Washington's efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah also fell apart after tensions escalated last month with the militant group's top leader Hassan Nasrallah being killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Tuesday that it is probing the unauthorised release of classified documents on Israel's potential retaliatory attack plan on Iran.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the Biden administration is not certain whether the documents were leaked or hacked, clarifying that there was however no indication of "additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain".
Confirming the investigation for the first time since the leak, the FBI said in a statement that it is "working closely with our partners in the Department of Defence and Intelligence Community".
Notably, the documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and note that Israel is still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's barrage of ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1.
A new United Nations report released on Monday said that if the war on Gaza ends tomorrow and the region returns to the status quo before Hamas' October 7 attack, it could still take 350 years for the battered nation and its economy to return to the pre-war level.
The report said, "Once a ceasefire is reached, a return to the pre-October 2023 status quo would not put Gaza on the path needed for recovery and sustainable development. If the 2007-2022 growth trend returns, with an average growth rate of 0.4 per cent, it will take Gaza 350 years just to restore the GDP levels of 2022."
And even then, GDP per capita would decline "continuously and precipitously" as the population grows, it added.