U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has expressed "deep concern" to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant over strikes on the Lebanese army after three soldiers were killed over the weekend.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Thursday that only the state should carry weapons, as he pushed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Lebanese authorities must deploy over (all) Lebanese territory and weapons should be carried only by the state and the Lebanese army," Mikati said on the sidelines of a Lebanon aid conference in Paris, without explicitly calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the only group that did not lay down its arms after the end of the Lebanese civil war.

The British Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer on Thursday attended the Lebanon Support Conference in Paris to reiterate calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said Thursday it targeted an Israeli military base near Haifa, the second time within 24 hours it has said it targeted the facility.

Hezbollah said it was clashing at close range on Thursday with Israeli troops in a south Lebanon border village, claiming it had hit two tanks.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday callied for an immediate cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer zone along the border with Israel.

Mikati spoke at a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a car on a highway leading to the capital Beirut, as Israel and Hezbollah fight a month-old war.

"An enemy drone targeted a car on the Kahale road," the NNA said, referring to a mountain area on the main highway between Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Germany pledged 96 million euros ($103 million) in additional aid to crisis-hit Lebanon at a Paris aid conference Thursday as conflict rages between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.

In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the southern town of Yater.

Inside what was once one of Beirut's oldest and best-known cinemas, dozens of Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah war spend their time following the news on their phones, cooking, chatting and walking around to pass the time.

Outside on Hamra Street, once a thriving economic hub, sidewalks are filled with displaced people, and hotels and apartments are crammed with those seeking shelter. Cafes and restaurants are overflowing.