At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Friday after the Israeli military ordered buildings in the Hezbollah stronghold to be evacuated.

The strikes come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon, with the death toll rising on both sides of the border.

AFPTV footage showed explosions followed by clouds of smoke billowing across the suburbs.

“The raids caused massive destruction in the targeted areas as dozens of buildings were razed to the ground in addition to fires breaking out,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said.

The strikes targeted the suburban areas of Ghobeiry and Al-Kafaat, Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of Al-Mujtaba Complex and the old airport road, it added.

The Israeli military has repeatedly bombed southern Beirut in recent weeks, while carrying out deadly strikes elsewhere in the capital and in Lebanon.

– Ceasefire Talks –

During Thursday’s talks, Israeli leader Netanyahu told US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any deal with Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s long-term security.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also met separately with the Americans, saying in a statement that their discussions focused on “security arrangements as they relate to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to to secure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.”

According to Israeli media reports citing government sources, the US-brokered plan would see Hezbollah forces retreat about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border, north of the Litani River.

Israeli troops would withdraw from Lebanon, and the Lebanese army would then man the border, alongside UN peacekeepers.

Lebanon would be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from rearming with imported weapons, and Israel would retain its rights under international law to act in self-defense.

Analysts say Israel’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has put it in a position of strength to reach a deal.

– Number of deaths increasing –

Also Thursday, Israeli medics and a local leader reported that seven Israelis were killed in a cross-border fire in Lebanon — one of Israel’s highest one-day tolls in more than a year of cross-border exchanges.

Four Thais from the northern Israeli town of Metula were also killed by rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Thailand’s foreign minister.

The Metula Regional Council said a local farmer and four foreign farm workers were killed in the strike.

Since fighting in Lebanon intensified on September 23 following cross-border exchanges that Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, the war has killed at least 1,829 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Health Ministry figures.

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said Thursday that the war has killed at least one child a day and injured an average of 10 daily since October 4.

The Israeli military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since ground operations began on September 30.

The NNA said the Israeli military carried out strikes in the main city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Thursday, two hours after issuing an evacuation order. The operation reportedly killed six people and destroyed several houses and buildings.

The NNA said six others were killed in raids in the town of Maqna, which was not included in Israel’s evacuation order.

– Talks in Gaza –

Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem — who took over after Israel killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah — did not explicitly link the cease-fire in Lebanon to an end to fighting in Gaza, the group’s previous position.

“If the Israelis decide they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept it, but on the terms that we think are appropriate and appropriate,” he said in his first speech since taking over on Tuesday.

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have long been trying to broker a ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Mediators seeking to negotiate a ceasefire should propose a truce of “less than a month” to the Palestinian group Hamas, a source familiar with the talks told AFP.

The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to the territory, the source added.

But on Thursday, a senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, reiterated that the group rejected a short-term pause.

“Hamas advocates a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” Nunu said.

Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel last year sparked the war and left 1,206 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory bombing and ground war have killed 43,204 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, figures the United Nations considers reliable.