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.

An Israeli airstrike on first responders in south Lebanon has killed five paramedics and two hospitals are ceasing operations due to the intensity of attacks.

The head of the Marjayoun government hospital, Mounes Kalakesh, told The Associated Press that five paramedics were killed and seven were wounded in the drone strike Friday near the hospital.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered remarks in Arabic in a rare Friday sermon after the Farsi-speaking Islamic republic had launched a missile attack on foe Israel.

During the sermon at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei hailed Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah and Hamas, which are both fighting Israel and operate in Arabic-speaking Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, respectively.

Hezbollah said it shelled Israeli troops in a border area of south Lebanon Friday, in the latest such clash on the frontier.

The group said its fighters targeted "Israeli enemy troops in the Maroun al-Ras plain with artillery".

A source close to Hezbollah said Friday the group's slain chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been temporarily buried in a secret location fearing Israel would target a large funeral.

"Hassan Nasrallah has been temporarily buried, until the circumstances allow for a public funeral," the source said, after an Israeli strike killed the leader last week.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday that an Israeli airstrike has cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria.

The agency gave no further details about Friday’s airstrike that led to the closure of a road near the Masnaa Border Crossing, from where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks. It’s the first time this major border crossing has been cut off since the beginning of the war.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Lebanon's capital Friday, official media said, as Israel intensifies its air strikes against the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

"An Iranian plane has landed at the Rafik Hariri International Airport with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on board," the Lebanese National News Agency said of the first visit by a top Iranian official since an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week.