Iran condemned Israeli "aggression" against Lebanon on Friday after its arch foe carried out air strikes against alleged targets of Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the Thursday evening strikes "as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Israel warned Friday that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed, hours after it hit Beirut's southern subrubs in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of the November ceasefire.

An Israeli military evacuation call issued ahead of Thursday's strikes sent huge numbers of residents of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long a bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah, fleeing for their lives.

Hamas' lead negotiator said Thursday the militant movement was ready for a new round of negotiations with a view to achieving a permanent ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

"We reaffirm that we are ready for a new, serious round of negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement," lead Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech marking the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festivities.

Lebanon's leaders accused Israel of a "flagrant" ceasefire violation by launching strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

President Joseph Aoun in a statement voiced "firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression" and called the strikes a "blatant violation of an international agreement, as well as the basic principles of international and humanitarian laws and resolutions, on the eve of a sacred religious occasion". He said it demonstrates Israel's "rejection of the requirements of stability, settlement and just peace in our region."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday that the Lebanese army had dismantled "more than 500 military positions and arms depots" belonging to Hezbollah in the south of the country.

"The state continues its action... to restore its authority over the entire national territory... and to have a monopoly on arms," Salam said in a televised address. The effort follows a ceasefire agreement between the militant group and Israel which ended a war between them last November.

The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for parts of Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, telling residents they were in the vicinity of buildings associated with Hezbollah.

A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbor in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said.

Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as both "racist" and "anti-Muslim". Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a "terrorist" offence since the unit was created in 2019.

Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country's longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar al-Assad's fall, seeking justice and accountability.

Tatari, arrested in 1981 and sentenced to life behind bars, was among scores of prisoners who walked free when longtime ruler Assad was overthrown on December 8 in an Islamist-led offensive.

Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab said Wednesday that authorities had seized all production facilities of illicit stimulant captagon, which became Syria's largest export under ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.

In an interview with state television, Khattab said that "we were able to stop the production of this drug and seize all the materials and factories that were producing" captagon.

Germany's foreign minister said on Wednesday that the country would continue arms deliveries to Israel despite earlier suggesting that these were under review.

Johann Wadephul told a heated session in parliament that Israel, amid its military campaign in Gaza, was under threat from Yemen's Houthi rebels, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran, and that "Germany will continue to support Israel, including with weapons deliveries".