The top U.N. official in Lebanon has repeated her call for an immediate ceasefire, saying the 21-day cease-fire proposal launched by the U.S. and France is still on the table “and very relevant.”

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that a halt to fighting is the only way to ease “the colossal human suffering that is happening right now,” address Lebanon’s “humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions” and provide a window “for diplomatic efforts to take hold and succeed.”

Israel's defense minister warned on Wednesday that the Israeli retaliation for a recent Iranian missile attack will be "lethal" and "surprising."

"Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won't understand what happened and how. They will see the results," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a speech to troops. "Whoever strikes us will be harmed and pay a price."

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike in Iqlim al-Kharroub on a hotel-turned-shelter for displaced people in southern Lebanon.

Ten others were wounded in the strike that hit the building in Wardanieh in Lebanon’s Chouf district north of Sidon.

Israel has promised to retaliate for Iran's massive missile attack last week. How it does so involves great risk, and could have major repercussions for the archenemies, the Middle East and the world.

Israel's options range from symbolic strikes on military targets to crippling attacks on Iran's vital oil industry or its secretive and heavily fortified nuclear program.

Turkish navy ships docked at a port in Beirut on Wednesday as a part of a mission to bring humanitarian aid to Lebanon and evacuate Turkish citizens.

Two of the ships, which can accommodate up to 2,000 passengers, were carrying up to 300 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of food, tents and blankets, according to a statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry.

At least six people were stabbed and wounded in northern Israel in what police say was a militant attack.

Police said the assailant stabbed people in multiple locations in the northern city of Hadera on Wednesday before fleeing on a motorbike. Police said they later shot and “neutralized” him, indicating he was killed. They did not provide the name or nationality of the assailant.

A large-scale Israeli operation in northern Gaza has killed and wounded dozens of people and threatens to shut down three hospitals over a year into the war with Hamas, Palestinian officials and residents said Wednesday.

Heavy fighting is underway in Jabaliya, where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup. The entire north, including Gaza City, has suffered heavy destruction and has been largely isolated by Israeli forces since late last year.

Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 people, including five children and two women.

Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza early Wednesday. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

France's minority government survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, two weeks after taking office, getting over the first hurdle placed by left-wing lawmakers to bring down new conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

The vote was a key test for Barnier, whose Cabinet is forced to rely on the far right's good will to be able to stay in power, as the nation grapples with economic challenges exacerbated by global inflation.

Sheikh Naim Qassem has been the acting head of Hezbollah since its longtime leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed as part of an Israeli offensive that has taken out many of the group's senior officials.

Qassem made a defiant televised speech Tuesday, claiming that the group's military capabilities are intact and Israelis will only suffer further as fighting continues.