Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told senior U.S. officials that any future agreement between Washington and Tehran would not stop Israel's war in Lebanon, according to a report published Monday.

UN’s refugee agency said more than 200,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria in March after the Israeli war.

The vast majority – nearly 180,000 – were Syrians returning to their war-battered country, in addition to more than 28,000 Lebanese.

A strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, AFPTV's live broadcast showed, after the Israeli military renewed its warning for residents to leave as it attacks the area.

The strike came shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the end of the war against the armed group.

The EU on Tuesday demanded an investigation into attacks on United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon, after three Indonesian troops were killed amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

"We call for a thorough investigation to shed light on these grave attacks. These attacks are a grave violation of international law, are totally unacceptable and must stop immediately," EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

There is no problem between the United States and Lebanon's Shiites, whom "we view as having been and still being a fundamental political component in the country," a prominent diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut has been quoted as saying.

Defence Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said Israel's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the end of the current war against the Hezbollah armed group.

"At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish itself in a security zone inside Lebanon, on a defensive line against anti-tank missiles, and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani," Katz said in a video statement published by his ministry, referring to a river around 30 kilometers from the border.

At least nine people were killed Tuesday in Israeli strikes on south and east Lebanon.

The Israeli army targeted al-Qantara, al-Qasmiyeh, Yater, Deirkifa, Zawtar, Shehabiyyeh-Kfardounin, Majdalzoun, Mansouri, al-Qlayleh, Henniyyeh, Ebba, Rshaf, Kafra, Dayr a-Zahrani, Srifa, Ebl al-Siqi, Khiam, and Jebshit in south Lebanon, while artillery shells hit Wadi Serbine, Touline, Qabrikha, Majdal Selem and the outskirts of Beit Leef.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah have poured into Beirut, seeking refuge wherever space is available.

Families from southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital known as Dahieh, where Hezbollah has its main operations and support base, are now living in makeshift tents along the Beirut corniche, in classrooms turned into shelters, a sports stadium and even inside hospitals.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the United Nations’ peacekeeping chief, told reporters Monday that it looks like Israel is expanding a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

He said that given Israeli military statements and actions, "it certainly looks like we might end up with, I would call it, an expanded buffer zone in southern Lebanon."

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaer, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, issued a scathing statement Monday, saying that the humanitarian impact in southern Lebanon as Israel trades fire with Hezbollah has reached devastating levels.

The envoy detailed the three U.N. peacekeepers and nine Lebanese paramedics killed in just the last few days as a snapshot of the death toll that now stands at more than 1,240.