Smoke rises from destroyed buildings from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the neighborhood of Mreijeh in Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday.

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike killed three Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon on Thursday as France hosted a conference to rally support for Lebanese state forces that are seen as vital to any diplomatic resolution of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese soldiers were killed by an Israeli strike as they were evacuating wounded people on the outskirts of the southern village of Yater, the Lebanese army said.

There was no immediate comment on the strike from the Israeli military, which has previously said it is not operating against the Lebanese army.

The area is part of the border region pounded by Israel during its monthlong offensive against Hezbollah, in a conflict that spiraled out of the Gaza Strip.

With more than 2,500 people killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million forced from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities, the Paris conference aims to mobilize both humanitarian aid and support for the Lebanese military.

Its deployment into the south is a key part of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. The Paris meeting is set to reiterate that Resolution 1701 should be the basis for a cessation to the current hostilities.

At the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would support Lebanon with 100 million euros ($108 million).

"The war must end as soon as possible; there must be a cease-fire in Lebanon," Macron said sitting alongside Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Mikati, in turn, called on "the international community to hold together and support efforts ... to implement an immediate cease-fire".

Some 70 government delegations and 15 international organizations met in Paris aiming to raise at least 500 million euros in humanitarian aid and push for a cease-fire.

"The storm we are currently witnessing is unlike any other because it carries the seeds of total destruction, not only for our country but for all human values as well," Mikati told delegates.

He said international support would be needed to shore up the army, including new recruits and to rebuild the country's destroyed infrastructure.

The conference has raised about $800 million for humanitarian aid and a further $200 million to support the country's armed forces, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

"We have risen to the occasion," Barrot told participants as the conference closed, adding that "we cannot limit ourselves to a humanitarian and security response ... we have to bring about a diplomatic solution" as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues.

Meanwhile, the United States is making a final major push for peace between Israel and Hezbollah and Hamas before the Nov 5 presidential election that could alter US policy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after talks in Qatar on Thursday that he anticipates negotiators will get together in the coming days for discussions on a cease-fire deal to end Israel's military assault in Gaza.

Blinken is paying his 11th trip to the region since the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, after repeated disappointments in his quest to end the Israeli retaliatory campaign in the Gaza Strip.

School targeted

Gaza's civil defense agency said on Thursday an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 17 people in the central Nuseirat area, while the military reported it had hit Hamas militants.

The Israeli military targeted the Al-Shuhada school in Nuseirat camp, killing 17 people and wounding dozens more, Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, told AFP.

The toll was confirmed by Al-Awda hospital, which said the school had been hit by an airstrike.

"Thousands of displaced people were sheltering in the school, most of them children and women," a statement issued by the Hamas government media office said.

In addition, the civil defense said on Thursday more than 770 Palestinians have been killed in the north of the territory since Israel launched an assault aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.

"Since the start of the military operation in northern Gaza more than 770 people have been killed," said Bassal, adding that the toll could rise as there were people buried under the rubble.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that Israel aims to "empty" the Gaza Strip of Palestinians, especially in the northern part where it launched a sweeping assault this month.

"It has been a full year since the greatest catastrophe that the Palestinian people experienced after the Nakba of 1948, which is the Israeli war in which crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing are being committed in the Gaza Strip," Abbas said in a speech to members of the BRICS group.

"This is part of a plan to empty the territory of its people, especially now in northern Gaza where the occupation forces are resorting to starving the population there."