Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Tuesday said the Lebanese government is trying to prevent Hezbollah from launching a harsh response against Israel that might trigger a wide war.

Hezbollah attacked Tuesday with an array of suicide drones an Israeli town near the border between Akka and Nahariya, wounding at least seven people, in response to the killing of one of its fighters in an Israeli airstrike.

Sirens sounded in Nahariya before a loud blast was heard and smoke began rising from an intersection. Earlier, an Associated Press reporter saw a drone flying over the city. The reporter later saw emergency crews rushing to the scene.

Israeli warplanes raided Tuesday the southern village of Mayfadoun in the Nabatiyeh district, killing five Hezbollah fighters.

Another person was injured in a separate strike on al-Khiam and a child was wounded in artillery shelling on al-Wazzani.

Since last week, tensions have soared as Iran and Tehran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, vowed revenge for the killing of Hamas's political leader in Tehran and Israel's killing of the Lebanese group's military chief in Beirut.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Hezbollah said overnight it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at northern Israel.

The Iran-backed group said its latest attack, on Beit Hillel in northern Israel, was in response to Israel's attacks on Kfarkela and Deir Siriane in south Lebanon which, it said, had injured civilians there.

MP Alain Aoun of the Strong Lebanon bloc has been officially expelled from the Free Patriotic Movement, the FPM’s media department said on Friday.

The FPM said the decision follows “two recommendations issued by the FPM’s Council of Elders that is led by (former) president Michel Aoun.”

UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, accompanied by Defense Secretary John Healey, ended a one-day visit to Lebanon yesterday, Thursday, the British embassy said.

Truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume soon despite the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday.

“Haniyeh’s assassination will contribute to pushing forward the negotiations over an agreement in Gaza,” the Israeli corporation quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday stressed that “in the face of the systematic and dangerous Israeli escalation,” Lebanon “can only stress its right to defend its land, sovereignty and dignity with all means available.”

“We have informed brotherly and friendly countries that we are advocates of peace not war, because we are seeking sustainable stability through regaining the occupied parts of our dear south and compelling the Israeli enemy to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 with all its stipulations,” Mikati said, during a visit to the Army Command on the occasion of Army Day.

Hezbollah targeted Friday Israeli soldiers in the Dhaira post with artillery shells and a post in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills, as it resumed its operations against Israel, three days after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander.

Israeli drones meanwhile raided the southern towns of Rab Tlatine and Dhaira.