Four children among 18 killed after Israeli strike near Beirut hospital, ministry says

At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and 60 were wounded in an Israeli strike on Monday near Beirut's main government hospital, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Israeli jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut but did not target the hospital and it was not affected by the strike, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

However, the director of the hospital said that due to the Israeli attack, nearby debris, probably from heavy ammunition, had caused damage to the medical facility.

While there were no casualties among the staff, efforts to rescue people in front of the hospital were ongoing, the director, Jihad Saadeh, added.

'Lebanon needs $250m a month for displaced'

Lebanon will need $250 million a month to help more than a million people displaced by Israeli attacks, its minister in charge of responding to the crisis said on Tuesday, ahead of a conference on Thursday in Paris to rally support for Lebanon.

Nasser Yassin told Reuters the government response, helped by local initiatives and international aid, only covered 20% of the needs of some 1.3 million people uprooted from their homes and sheltering in public buildings or with relatives.

Those needs are likely to grow, as daily waves of airstrikes push more people out of their homes and leave Lebanon's government scrambling to find ways to house them, Yassin said.

"We need $250 million a month" to cover basic food, water, sanitation and education services for the displaced, he said.

Schools, an old slaughterhouse, a fresh food market, an empty complex - all of them have been turned into collective shelters in recent days. "We're transforming anything, any public building," Yassin said. "There is a lot to be done."