A shipowner wanted over the 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials said Tuesday.

The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.

Arab and Muslim leaders called for a review of ties with Israel after emergency talks in Doha on Monday following last week's deadly strike on Hamas members in the Qatari capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar's leader Tuesday to ask the Gulf country to stay on as a mediator in Gaza talks, a week after Israeli warplanes attacked Hamas leaders in the emirate.

Israel launched its long anticipated ground assault on Gaza City before dawn on Tuesday, shortly after visiting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed its goal of eradicating Hamas in Gaza.

A United Nations probe, meanwhile, charged Israel with committing "genocide" in the Palestinian territory and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials of incitement.

Qatar's emir said Monday that Israel had sought to derail Gaza talks by striking Hamas negotiators in his country last week, and that its premier Benjamin Netanyahu dreams of an Arab world under Israeli influence.

"Whoever works diligently and systematically to assassinate the party with whom he is negotiating, intends to thwart the negotiations... Negotiations, for them, are merely part of the war," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Doha to discuss the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would provide "unwavering support" to Israel in the war in Gaza as he called for the eradication of Hamas during a visit to the U.S. ally on Monday.

Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar said Monday that authorities dismantled a network that was preparing to smuggle hashish and the illicit stimulant captagon to Saudi Arabia.

Lebanon has faced pressure from Gulf states to counter the production and trafficking of drugs, particularly the amphetamine-like narcotic captagon, for which the conservative monarchies are a major market.

French investigators have opened a corruption inquiry into former Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, lawyers who made the formal complaint said.

Mikati, a 69-year-old billionaire telecoms tycoon, was prime minister until January this year.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday urged Muslim countries to cut ties with Israel ahead of an summit responding to an unprecedented Israeli strike on Hamas members in Qatar.

The Lebanese health ministry said one person was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike in the south of the country, where Israel frequently says it is targeting Hezbollah members or assets.

"A raid by the Israeli enemy on a car in the town of Burj Qalaway killed one person," the ministry said in a statement.