Lebanon's health ministry on Sunday said Israeli strikes across Lebanon a day earlier killed 51 people.

After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel on September 23 escalated its campaign targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Saturday's death toll included at least 22 people killed in three areas outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

Among those were 16 people killed in Maaysra, a Shiite village in a Christian-majority area north of Beirut, the ministry said.

Rescuers found two dead and "body parts" in Deir Billa, near the northern town of Batroun.

The strikes also killed four people in Barja in the Shouf district south of the capital.

In the country's south, the ministry said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh area, whose main market was ravaged in strikes late Saturday.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Most strikes have targeted south and east Lebanon, as well as the densely populated Beirut southern suburbs where Hezbollah holds sway.

But several air raids have also hit areas in central Beirut.