The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new U.S. humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

"This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee populations inside Lebanon and the communities that host them. The assistance will also support those fleeing to neighboring Syria," Blinken said.

Hezbollah said Saturday its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon's southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck militants from the group at a mosque.

The Israeli military on Friday said its forces had killed 250 Hezbollah fighters during the past four days after launching ground operations in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the military said "250 Hezbollah terrorists were eliminated, of which 21 were commanders during four days of precise operation in southern Lebanon."

The UK is boosting its humanitarian support for Lebanon with a further £10 million to respond to the mass displacement of people, as well as the growing number of civilian casualties, the British embassy said.

The Lebanese Forces on Friday called for open-ended parliamentary sessions to elect a new president, accusing the Hezbollah-led camp of "continuing to block the election while falsely blaming the LF."

“We believed for a moment that this tragedy that the Lebanese are experiencing at the present time will push some political figures, especially the Defiance camp, to deeply review all their positions that have brought Lebanon and the Lebanese to where we are now,” the LF said in a statement.

Caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati is calling for a national dialogue between the country’s divided political groups to agree on who should become the country’s new president.

Lebanon’s presidency has been vacant since October 2022, when the six-year term of President Michel Aoun ended.

U.S.-arranged flights have brought about 250 Americans and their relatives out of Lebanon this week during escalated fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, while thousands of others still there face airstrikes and diminishing commercial flights.

In Washington, senior State Department and White House officials met Thursday with two top Arab American officials to discuss U.S. efforts to help American citizens leave Lebanon. The two leaders also separately met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security.

U.N. peacekeepers are staying in their positions on Lebanon's southern border despite Israel's request to vacate some areas before it launched its ground operation against Hezbollah, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Thursday.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the commander and liaison officers from the U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, also are in constant contact with their counterparts in the Israeli and Lebanese militaries. He called that key to protecting the U.N.'s more than 10,000 peacekeepers.

The Israeli military said Friday that a strike in south Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division.

The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.

Hezbollah is receiving “very severe blows, one after the other,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday.