Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Thursday slammed Israel’s disregard for the ceasefire mechanism, urging the international community to exert utmost pressure on Israel to halt its attacks, after Israeli strikes targeted three southern towns following evacuation warnings.

"Lebanon calls on the international community, and particularly the countries that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, to exert maximum pressure on Israel to immediately halt its attacks," Salam said amidst a cabinet meeting.

A shooting at a border crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan on Thursday killed two men, Israeli medics and the military said.

The two men, about 20 and 60 years of age, who were wounded in the shooting at the Allenby crossing were later pronounced dead, Israel's emergency service Magen David Adom said.

Syria will strike several security and military agreements with Israel by the end of the year, a foreign ministry official told AFP on Thursday.

"There is progress in the talks with Israel," said the official who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to brief the media, adding that several agreements are expected to be signed "by the end of the year".

The World Health Organization chief warned Thursday that Israel's ground offensive in northern Gaza had left already overwhelmed hospitals on the "brink of collapse" and demanded an "end to these inhumane conditions".

"The military incursion and evacuation orders in northern Gaza are driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatized families into an ever-shrinking area unfit for human dignity," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, warning that "hospitals, already overwhelmed, are on the brink of collapse as escalating violence blocks access and prevents WHO from delivering lifesaving supplies".

Syria's foreign minister is heading to Washington on Thursday, a foreign ministry source told AFP, in the first such visit in more than 25 years.

"Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani will travel to Washington to discuss the lifting of the remaining sanctions," the source said, requesting anonymity as they were not allowed to brief the media.

An Israeli strike on the eastern city of Baalbek has killed at least two people, the health ministry said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Wednesday that the strike was carried out by an Israeli drone.

The Lebanese Army said on Wednesday that it has seized 64 million captagon pills in the country's east in one of the largest operations against the illicit stimulant in the country.

Lebanon has faced pressure from Gulf states to counter the production and trafficking of drugs, particularly the amphetamine-like narcotic captagon, for which the conservative monarchies are a major market.

Canada's central bank cut its key lending rate to 2.5 percent on Wednesday, offering a boost to borrowers in an economy squeezed by US President Donald Trump's trade war.

The Israeli army said it has struck more than 150 targets in Gaza City since launching a major ground offensive on the Gaza Strip's main urban hub early on Tuesday.

"Over the past two days, the (Israeli air force) and artillery corps troops struck over 150 terror targets throughout Gaza City in support of the manoeuvring troops in the area," the military said in a statement issued Wednesday.

The EU on Wednesday proposed curbing trade ties with Israel and sanctioning ministers in its strongest action over the war in Gaza, but the measures will struggle to be adopted due to reluctance from key member states.

"I want to be very clear, the aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.