BEIRUT —Israel said Tuesday that one of its airstrikes outside Beirut earlier this month killed a Hezbollah official widely expected to replace the longtime leader of the militant group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah about the fate of Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric who was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders.

Safieddine was killed in early October in a strike that also killed 25 other Hezbollah leaders, according to Israel, whose airstrikes in southern Lebanon in recent months have killed many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, leaving the group in disarray.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Tuesday with Netanyahu as part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. After Israel’s killing last week in Gaza of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Blinken is trying to revive efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.

Blinken stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and said Israel should “capitalize” on Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages there. Netanyahu’s office called his meeting with Blinken of more than two hours “friendly and productive.”

Blinken landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas and at its international airport, but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was hit by fresh airstrikes Tuesday, including one that leveled a building that Israel said housed Hezbollah facilities. The collapse sent smoke and debris into the air a few hundred yards from where a Hezbollah spokesperson had just briefed reporters about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli prime minister’s house.

The airstrike came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah. The Hezbollah news conference nearby was cut short. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, said the group was behind the Saturday drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea. He hinted that it might attempt future strikes on Netanyahu’s home. Israel has said neither the prime minister nor his wife were home at the time of the attack.

An Israeli airstrike Monday night in Beirut destroyed several buildings across the street from the country’s largest public hospital, killing 18 people and wounding at least 60 others. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and said that it hadn’t targeted the hospital itself.

Reporters visited the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Tuesday. They saw broken windows in the hospital’s pharmacy and dialysis center, which was full of patients at the time.

Staff at another Beirut hospital feared it would be targeted after Israel alleged that Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in its basement.

The director of the Sahel General Hospital denied the allegations and invited journalists to visit the hospital and its two underground floors Tuesday. Reporters saw no sign of militants or anything out of the ordinary.

“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alame said. “There is nothing under the hospital.”

Many in Lebanon fear Israel could target its hospitals in the same way it has raided medical facilities across Gaza. The Israeli military has accused Hamas and other militants of using hospitals for military purposes, allegations denied by medical staff.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that 63 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours, raising the death toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,546.

During his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken underscored the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, according to U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The need for more aid in Gaza is something Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made clear in a letter to Israeli officials last week.

Miller said Blinken also stressed the importance of ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated earlier this month when Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The State Department said ahead of Blinken’s visit that he would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have brokered months of talks between Israel and Hamas, trying to strike a deal in which the militants would release dozens of hostages in return for an end to the war, a lasting cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But both Israel and Hamas accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands over the summer, and the talks ground to a halt in August. Hamas says its demands haven’t changed following the killing of Sinwar.

Israel said it launched its ground invasion of Lebanon to try to stop near-daily rocket attacks from Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza.

Blinken’s visit to the region is likely to include stops in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.