Israeli Drone Strikes Kill Six in Southern Lebanon; Car Hit Near Beirut

Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and a separate strike hit a car on a busy highway in Khaldeh near Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese authorities said.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a "hostile aircraft" that had crossed into the north of Israel from Lebanon.

Israel has previously stated it would continue to strike Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs if the Iran-backed group continued to target the north of Israel, a position that Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday was supported by Washington.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it attacked Israeli troops that invaded southern Lebanon, but did not claim a cross-border attack.

The exchange of fire took place hours before Israel and Lebanon were due to meet for a second day of talks in Washington, the fourth round of negotiations since fresh hostilities broke out on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel in a show of solidarity with Iran.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a deal between the two, under which Israel would refrain from striking Beirut's southern suburbs, while Hezbollah would cease its attack on northern Israel.

US officials later said that Trump had had a heated phone call with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he called him "f****** crazy."

"Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this," Trump told Netanyahu.

Trump confirmed the expletive-laden exchange had taken place in an interview published by the New York Post on Wednesday.

Trump's response comes as Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon threaten to derail Washington's diplomatic efforts with Iran. This week, Tehran said Israel's expanding military campaign risked jeapordising the ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Despite the agreement, Israeli strikes conintued across southern Lebanon, in particular in and around the cities of Tyre, where a strike killed four Syrians and two Palestinians overnight.

Israel had warned residents of Tyre's Christian neighbourhoods that Hezbollah was operating in the area, prompting the Lebanese army to deploy forces in an effort to demonstrate that the group does not have an armed presence in those regions.

In recent days, Israel has expanded its military operation into Lebanon, sending troops beyond the Litani river for the first time since the end of Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. Israeli forces also seized the Beaufort Castle, a historic hilltop fort near Nabatiyeh.

Across much of southern Lebanon, including Nabatiyeh, Israel has issued evacuation orders to civilians as fighting intensifies.