Beirut death toll from Tuesday's Israeli attack rises to five

The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut his risen to five, Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Three women and two children have died and more than 70 were wounded in the Tuesday attack, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had killed Fuad Shukr, the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization's most senior military commander and the head of its strategic unit, in the attack.

The secretary-general of Lebanon's High Relief Committee, General Mohammed Kheir, inspected the area where the strike took place and promised that all damages will be covered by the state, according to the official NNA news agency.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib discussed recent events in Lebanon and the region and ways to prevent the expansion of the war during his meeting with Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Head of UN Peacekeeping Operations.

"The military option pursued by the Israeli government aims to plunge the region into a spiral of war that will only bring destruction and devastation to everyone," Bou Habib said during the meeting, also attended by UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

Ensuring security in southern Lebanon will only happen through diplomatic means, a ceasefire, and full commitment to all relevant UN resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, which remains the only way to prevent further violence, death, and devastation, he added.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was intended to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War with Israel. It calls for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and the withdrawl of Israeli forces from certain areas in Lebanon and calls on Hezbollah to retreat behind the Litani River, 30 kilometres from Lebanon's border with Israel.