TEL AVIV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday "now is the time" to end the conflict in Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid further escalation with Iran.
In Lebanon, AFP correspondents reported several Israeli air strikes on Tyre, after the military warned residents of parts of the coastal city to flee ahead of operations targeting Hezbollah.
The warning sparked a new exodus from the once vibrant city, which is perched on the Mediterranean coast, and AFPTV footage showed plumes of thick black smoke rising from the city after the strikes.
"The situation is very bad, we're evacuating people," said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre's disaster management unit. "You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated," said Bilal Kashmar, the unit's media officer.
Blinken's visit to the region is his 11th since the start of the war in Gaza and his first since Israel-Hezbollah violence escalated to all-out war late last month.
Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed.
On aid to Gaza, Blinken said he saw "progress being made, which is good, but more progress needs to be made and, most critically, it needs to be sustained".
Of Israel's pledge to retaliate for Iran's October 1 missile attack, the US top diplomat said: "It's also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation."
The US diplomat urged Israel to seize what he described as an "incredible opportunity in this region to move in a totally different direction".
VACCINATION DRIVE
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said it was forced to postpone the last phase of a polio vaccination drive in Gaza due to "intense bombardment" and violence in the north.
After nearly a year of war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border under fire from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah kept up its attacks on Israel on Wednesday, saying it had fired rockets at an Israeli military intelligence base in the suburbs of commercial hub Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah confirmed on Wednesday that Israel killed Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor of Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike, without saying when or where it happened.
The announcement came a day after Israel said he was killed along with other Hezbollah leaders in an air strike in Beirut's southern suburbs three weeks ago.
"We mourn... the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, his eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine," the group said in a statement, adding he was killed by "a criminal and aggressive Zionist raid" alongside other Hezbollah fighters. - Agencies
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