Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif was killed Sunday in a rare Israeli airstrike targeting the center of the capital Beirut -- outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds of Dahieh, the south and the Bekaa, a Hezbollah official said.

The strike -- in the Ras al-Nabaa area near Sodeco Square -- targeted a building containing the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Baath Party that rules Syria. A Baath member who survived the strike said the building also contained an apartment housing displaced Lebanese.

The Israeli military said about 20 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israel on Sunday, with Israeli air defense system intercepting some of them.

Several strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs Sunday morning and at noon, after the Israeli military warned people to evacuate twice.

Columns of smoke were seen rising over the capital's southern suburbs, where Lebanon's only international airport is located.

Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back Saturday after battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.

The clashes and further Israeli bombardment came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. on ending the war.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the chances of reaching a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel are now above 50 percent, noting that U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has obtained a green light from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to press on with the negotiations.

Three Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Saturday morning, shortly after the Israeli army issued a new call to evacuate the area.

Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several strikes on the city's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

Suzanne Karkaba and her father Ali were both civil defense rescuers whose job was to save the injured and recover the dead in Lebanon's war.

An Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatieh, Lebanon’s state media said. The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn't provide their ages.

Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.

The U.S. ceasefire paper presented to Speaker Nabih Berri consists of 13 points, the most controversial of which is one granting both sides "the right to self-defense," which Lebanon fears could stand for the "freedom of movement" that Israel has demanded and Lebanon has rejected, diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Friday.

When Sara first arrived at her rescuers' home, she was sick, tired, and was covered in ringworms and signs of abuse all over her little furry body.

After spending two months in a small Beirut apartment with an animal rights group, the four-and-half-month-old lion cub arrived Friday at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa after a long journey on a yacht and planes, escaping both Israeli airstrikes and abusive owners.