Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday recommended his Cabinet approve a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel stepped up its bombardment of Lebanon in the hours leading up to the Cabinet meeting, killing at least 23 people, according to local authorities. The military also issued a flurry of evacuation warnings — a sign it aims to keep pummeling Hezbollah in the final hours before any ceasefire takes hold.

Lebanon’s state media said Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 10 people in Baalbek province the country’s east.

At least three people were killed in the southern city of Tyre when Israel bombed a Palestinian refugee camp, said Mohammed Bikai, a representative of the Fatah group in the area. He said several more people were missing and at least three children were among the wounded.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon were "in the final stages", and added that a deal could help end the Gaza conflict.

"We’re not there yet, but I believe we are in the final stages," Blinken told reporters after a meeting near Rome with G7 counterparts, adding that "by de-escalating tensions in the region, it can also help us to end the conflict in Gaza".

Foreign ministers from the world's leading industrialized countries threw their strong support Tuesday behind an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah but sidestepped a key question after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israel's leader over the war in Gaza.

At the end of their two-day summit outside Rome, the Group of Seven ministers didn't refer explicitly to the Hague-based court and its arrest warrants on charges of crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a public statement at 8 pm (1800 GMT), his office said, as hopes grow for a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli leader is currently meeting in Tel Aviv with key ministers in his security cabinet to discuss the terms of a deal laid out by U.S. mediators, with French involvement.

Lebanese state media reported a spate of Israeli air strikes on central Beirut Tuesday -- preceded by Israeli evacuation calls for the first time in two months of war -- ahead of a possible ceasefire.

The Israeli army issued evacuation warnings Tuesday for four buildings in Beirut's Zokak al-Blat, Mazraa (Nweiri), Msaitbeh, and Ras Beirut (Hamra), following an earlier strike without warning on a building housing displaced people in Nweiri - Basta al-Fawqa.

The Israeli army said 10 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday, triggering sirens in the port city of Haifa and other areas.

"Following the sirens that sounded between 16:44 (1444 GMT) and 16:45 in the Haifa Bay area, five projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were intercepted by the IAF (Israeli air force)," the army said in a statement, adding that another five were fired into the Upper and Western Galilee, some of which were intercepted.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Tuesday that an agreement on a proposed ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was "within reach".

"A ceasefire and steps towards a political solution along the lines of U.N. Resolution 1701 are within reach thanks to direct U.S. and French mediation," Baerbock told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.

Waves of strikes pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold on Tuesday in the most intense raids on the area in two months of full-scale war with Israel — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the last moments before any ceasefire takes hold.

Plumes of smoke also rose over Beirut as an Israeli strike targeted a residential building in the center of the capital, without prior warning.

An Israeli strike on a Beirut building housing displaced people on Tuesday, killed at least three people, as raids formed "a belt of fire" around the capital's southern suburbs.

The strike levelled a building in the densely-populated area of Basta al-Fawqa, without a prior warning, the second strike in recent days in the crowded area near the city's downtown.