Three people were killed in a pair of Israeli strikes on vehicles near Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry said late Wednesday, after a third day of Israeli bombardments in response to renewed Hezbollah attacks.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said he urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to "refrain from a ground offensive" in Lebanon in their first phone call since last summer.

The Lebanese Army said Wednesday it had arrested 27 people in the past two days for "illegally possessing weapons and ammunition", following a government decision to ban Hezbollah's military activities.

Iran's armed forces threatened on Wednesday to target Israeli missions worldwide if Israel were to attack Tehran's mission in Lebanon, a military spokesman said.

The Israeli military said anti-tank fire in south Lebanon injured two of its soldiers on Wednesday, after Hezbollah said it had struck two Israeli military vehicles.

Hezbollah said Wednesday it had targeted an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv in central Israel and a naval base in Haifa in the north with swarms of attack drones.

The Israeli military told residents living south of Lebanon's Litani river to immediately head north on Wednesday, warning that the Israeli army was "compelled to take military action" against Hezbollah in the area.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had targeted the headquarters of Israel Aerospace Industries, in central Israel, overnight with a drone attack while also saying it launched a missile at a drone control base.

Israeli forces have advanced into a number of towns and villages in south Lebanon, a source from the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, UNIFIL, told AFP on Wednesday.

Israeli strikes hit a Beirut hotel and residential complex in Lebanon's east, Lebanese state media said Wednesday, as Israel announced broad strikes in response to Hezbollah missile and drone launches.

Lebanese state media said the Israeli attacks targeted a building in Baalbek, in Lebanon's east far from the border, as well as a hotel in an area of Beirut so far spared from the violence.