dpa
Beirut/Paris
An international conference in Paris has mobilized €800mn million ($865mn) in immediate humanitarian aid for Lebanon, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Thursday, with a further €200 million pledged to bolster the country’s armed forces.
The conference in the French capital brought together around 70 countries and international organizations.
France, the former mandate power in Lebanon, contributed €100mn of the total, while Germany stumped up €96mn.
"The war must end as soon as possible, we need a ceasefire in Lebanon,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the gathering.
He assured the country and its people of support in times of need and in rebuilding "a free, sovereign Lebanon.” The United Nations has estimated the immediate emergency aid needed for the country at €400 million.
Macron lamented the growing number of civilian casualties due to Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon and in the capital Beirut.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said in Paris that Israel’s attacks threatened the country’s existence and have caused massive damage to the infrastructure and economy, in addition to displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes in the south, the Lebanese army said on Thursday.
Israel "targeted” Lebanese army personnel in the outskirts of the southern town of Yater while they were evacuating injured people, the army said.
Lebanon’s official NNA news agency reported that an Israeli strike hit a house in Yater, followed by another strike while rescue teams were responding, leaving some medics injured.
The Lebanese Hezbollah militia claimed that it destroyed an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon with a guided missile. There had been ongoing clashes with rockets and machine guns in Ayta al-Shaab since dawn, it said.
NNA reported that the mayor of Burj Qallawiyah was killed in an overnight Israeli attack on the village. Furthermore, two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a vehicle near Beirut.
On the other side of the border, two men near the northern Israeli coastal city of Nahariya were injured by shrapnel from a missile strike from Lebanon on Thursday.
The Israeli army reported that Hezbollah had fired around 50 missiles at the Galilee region in northern Israel on Thursday morning. It said some missiles had been intercepted, while others hit the ground.
One soldier was killed and seven were injured in Israeli strikes targeting several sites in Syria, the official SANA news agency reported on Thursday.