Beirut

The Lebanese caretaker prime minister and the Cypriot president are calling on the European Union to provide financial support to help cash-strapped Lebanon stop migrants from reaching European shores.

Indirect negotiations aiming to halt the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon are set to commence soon, as per reports from Lebanese media outlets cited by DPA.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed Hamas's demand for a ceasefire and ordered troops to prepare to move on the city of Rafah in Gaza's far south, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.

Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken was set to meet Israeli leaders Tuesday as part of efforts to contain the war in Gaza, a day after strikes in Syria and Lebanon killed high-profile members of Hamas and its ally Hezbollah.

Israel killed a top commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a security source told AFP Monday, adding to fears the conflict in Gaza could spread.

Hezbollah later announced the killing of a "commander" for the first time, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil. It said he died "on the road to Jerusalem" — the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Israel's war against the radical Palestinian movement Hamas could spread to other countries in the region.

The Palestinian side reported dozens of new victims of the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah traded fire Saturday in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after the militia's leader urged retaliation for the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon's capital.

Israel bombed Gaza on Saturday as the United Nations warned the Palestinian territory has become "uninhabitable" after three months of fighting that threatens to engulf the wider region.

AFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes early Saturday on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting.

Palestinians to be able to manage civil affairs with the help of a "global task force", without Israeli settlement activities, but under continued military control.

The international community must impose a solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict as the warring sides are unable to come to terms, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.