Sirens sound in Tel Aviv after fresh air strikes reported in Lebanon

Israeli warplanes pounded villages in south Lebanon for a third day, Lebanese media reported Wednesday, while Israel said it intercepted a missile fired after sirens sounded early morning in Tel Aviv.

Lebanese officials said hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes in the south this week to avoid fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said Israeli warplanes launched raids on multiple towns in the south from 5:00 am (0200 GMT), adding "casualties were reported" from other strikes overnight.

The United Nations Security Council said it will hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in New York Wednesday, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the situation was critical.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since the latest round of fighting began Monday, officials said, some crossing the border to Syria to flee Israeli bombing.

Thuraya Harb, a 41-year-old housewife at a makeshift centre for displaced families in Beirut, said her family fled "with nothing but the clothes on our backs".

"I didn't want to leave my home, but the children were scared," the mother of four said.

Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The Hamas attack sparked a war in Gaza that has drawn in Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militants from across the Middle East, including Yemen and Iraq.

Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday — the deadliest day of violence in the country since its 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the "vast...