Israel's defense minister said the Israeli military had destroyed two bridges spanning the Litani River in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, alleging they were being used by Hezbollah.

The line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the coast of southern Lebanon, as residents of areas bombarded in the Israel-Hezbollah war poured into the ancient city of Sidon in search of safety.

U.S. President Donald Trump angrily suggested Wednesday that he could leave U.S. allies to secure the Hormuz strait on their own since they have refused to fight alongside U.S. forces against Iran in the crucial shipping lane.

Saying the United States doesn't need the strait -- a major global oil shipping pathway -- Trump wrote on his Truth Social site that he could "let the Countries that use it" find a solution.

Germany and France on Wednesday called for de-escalation of the Middle East war with Germany's top diplomat warning of a "crisis of the gravest order" if global supply chains continue to be disrupted.

Doha on Wednesday condemned attacks on an Iranian facility on the Gulf coast serving a massive gas field it shares with Qatar.

Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned what it said was a "missile strike" on Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog announced earlier was hit by a projectile.

U.S.-Israeli strikes hit Iranian facilities at a major Gulf gas field on Wednesday causing a fire, Iranian state television reported.

Sara Saleh and her family fled wearing their pyjamas on Wednesday when Israel's military said it would strike a central Beirut building near the school-turned-shelter where they had been staying.

Several other strikes, however, came without warning, jolting terrified residents in the middle of the night and early morning and killing at least 12 people.

An Israeli strike on Wednesday hit a car in the center of Sidon, southern Lebanon's largest city, killing two people, including a civil defense rescuer, and wounding another.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the strike hit near the city's civil defense headquarters and the seaside road, where many displaced people are sleeping in their cars.

Lebanon said Israel struck central Beirut early Wednesday without warning, killing at least twelve people, as the Israeli military announced it was targeting the country's south.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said two strikes in the early hours of Wednesday hit an apartment in the central Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood, a densely populated area close to the government's headquarters and several embassies.