Since Israel began its relentless bombardment on the Gaza Strip and its indiscriminate killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Lebanon's southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Gaza-based militant group Hamas.

Mayor of the border village of Alma al-Shaab, Jean Ghafari, said fire broke out after Israeli bombing late Wednesday.

"The blaze reached the edges of the village after midnight" and is still burning, he told AFP, adding that it "has come close to houses".

Security forces, civil defence personnel, United Nations peacekeepers and volunteers were battling the blaze but "have been unable to completely control it because of strong winds", Ghafari added.

The municipality said some 70 percent of the village's population had fled due to Israeli attacks.

An AFP photographer saw fire near houses on the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab and burnt olive trees, with the blaze mainly concentrated between the village and the coastal city of Naqura.

"Overnight (Israeli) bombing with phosphorus led to the fire, which has affected a broad forested area and spread due to the high winds," Naqura mayor Abbas Awada told AFP in a statement.

In recent weeks, Lebanon's official National News Agency and Lebanese paramedics have reported fires and injuries due to white phosphorus, while Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using the incendiary weapon in the Gaza Strip, and in southern Lebanon.

Israel has denied the allegations.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, whose party is allied with Hezbollah, on Thursday condemned Israel's use of "phosphorus bombs" along Lebanon's border and blamed "the international community" for the blazes, alluding to Western military support for Israel.

Israel has carried out a grisly war on the Gaza Strip where at least 7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks, mainly civilians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures. More than 2,900 children, 1,700 women and around 400 elderly were killed in the attacks, with at least 19,000 wounded.

This comes after an October 7 Hamas attack that saw militants kill at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.

Exchanges of fire across the Lebanon-Israel border have since killed at least 57 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.

Four people have been killed on the Israeli side, including one civilian.

Phosphorus, a substance that catches fire on contact with the air, is used to create smokescreens to hide troop movements, illuminate the battlefield or destroy buildings by fire.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online