Israel's military said it launched strikes against Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Thursday, hours before U.S.-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel were set to begin in Washington.

"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in several areas in southern Lebanon," the military said after issuing evacuation warnings for a number of villages in south and east Lebanon.

More than 10,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Lebanon since a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the head of the country's National Council for Scientific Research said.

"Since the current ceasefire... we have witnessed 5,386 housing units that were completely destroyed, and 5,246 housing units damaged," CRNS chief Chadi Abdallah told a news conference broadcast by local media.

Lebanon's health ministry said 22 people including eight children were killed on Wednesday as Israel intensified strikes on the country.

Israeli airstrikes struck seven vehicles in Lebanon — three of them on the main highway just south of Beirut — killing 12 people including a woman and her two children.

Lebanon and Israel are to hold new peace talks in Washington starting Thursday, as their latest ceasefire -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- nears its end.

Lebanon and Israel last met on April 23 at the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump announced a three-week ceasefire extension and voiced optimism for a historic agreement.

The UAE on Wednesday branded 21 Lebanese people and organizations as "terrorists", ordering the freezing of their assets as it accused them of ties to Hezbollah, the official Emirati news agency reported.

More than 10,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Lebanon since a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the head of the country's National Council for Scientific Research said on Wednesday.

The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Wednesday it is increasingly concerned about fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near its positions, putting peacekeepers at risk, including with explosions of drones in and around U.N. bases.

UNIFIL said that a presumed Hezbollah drone detonated inside its headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura on Tuesday, following earlier presumed Hezbollah drone detonations on Monday and Tuesday. No one was injured, but some buildings were damaged.

The heads of the Israeli defense establishment on Wednesday presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a number of technological solutions for the threat of Hezbollah's fiber-optic drones, the Israel Hayom newspaper said.

Direct contacts have taken place between Baabda Palace and Ain el-Tineh, and indirect contacts have been made with Hezbollah, through Speaker Nabih Berri, to persuade the Iran-backed group to agree to a ceasefire if Israel does in the Thursday-Friday talks in Washington, a media report said.

Saudi special envoy for Lebanon, Prince Yazid bin Farhan, intends to visit Beirut early next week to monitor political developments related to the Washington negotiations and the 'anticipated escalation of internal and regional disputes and pressures," al-Akhbar newspaper reported.