EU to hold emergency talks on Lebanon escalation

European foreign ministers will hold emergency talks Monday on the situation in Lebanon, Brussels said, as Israel presses on with air strikes after killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. A spokesman said the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had convened a video meeting at 1500 GMT "to discuss the EU's response to the latest escalation in Lebanon".

International powers are scrambling to prevent the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group from spiralling into a broader conflict. The 27-nation European Union has so far struggled to speak with one voice -- or exert much influence -- to curb the violence that has roiled the region over the past year.

Israel on Monday carried out its first air strike in the heart of Lebanon's capital Beirut since the outbreak of the war in Gaza last year, killing four people. That raid was the latest in an aerial campaign that saw Israel kill Hezbollah's long-time chief Nasrallah on Friday in a major ratcheting up of tensions.

Israeli attacks have killed hundreds in Lebanon since last Monday, the deadliest day since the country's 1975-1990 civil war. In the last week, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 700 people, including 14 paramedics over a two-day period, the ministry said.

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon and more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria. Israel has increasingly switched its focus to tackling Hezbollah after almost a year of waging a devastating offensive in the Gaza following last year's October 7 attack by Hamas. Hezbollah, a close ally of Hamas, stepped up barrages of northern Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack, displacing tens of thousands of people.