The U.N. peacekeeping chief says the U.N. force in southern Lebanon is determined to stay, not only because of its mandate monitoring attacks by Israel and Hezbollah but because the departure of peacekeepers would likely mean U.N. facilities would be taken over by one of the warring parties.

“That would be very bad for many reasons, including the perception of impartiality and neutrality of the United Nations,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in a U.N. interview.

Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon's northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.

In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials said.

Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate Hezbollah, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.

The meetings that U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk held Thursday in Israel regarding a ceasefire in Lebanon were “good” and “the gaps have narrowed,” a U.S. official told the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri noted Friday that “at least since September, Israel has wasted several certain chances to achieve a ceasefire, implement Resolution 1701, restore calm and secure a return of the displaced on both sides of the border.”

More than a month into its war with Israel, Hezbollah says it is ready for a truce, but there are limits to what it can accept after suffering devastating attacks, analysts say.

The Iran-backed group said Wednesday it would accept a ceasefire, if offered and if the terms were "suitable," acknowledging it had been dealt "painful" blows by Israel.

Lebanon’s state news agency says two separate Israeli airstrikes on Friday in the country's northeast have killed 10 people.

Cattle farmer Khairallah Yaacoub refused to leave south Lebanon despite a year of Hezbollah-Israel clashes. When full-scale war erupted, he and four others were stranded in their ruined border village.

Yaacoub is among a handful of villagers in the war-battered south who have tried to stay put despite the Israeli onslaught.

The news came by video. Law professor Ali Mourad discovered that Israel had dynamited his family's south Lebanon home only after footage of the operation was sent to his phone.

"A friend from the village sent me the video, telling me to make sure my dad doesn't see it," Mourad, 43, told AFP.

The World Health Organization said Friday it was deeply concerned about Israeli attacks hitting healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, in its war against Hezbollah.