The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel has calling for ending the escalation a day after exchanges of fire killed 17 people.

The force known as UNIFIL said it is very concerned over the surge of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Lebanon-based militant groups including Hezbollah.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel on Thursday warned that “we are on the verge of repeating the Gaza experience in south Lebanon,” as he offered condolences over the civilians and paramedics who were killed by Israeli strikes over the past days.

Hezbollah attacked Thursday two settlements in northern Israel in retaliation to what it called a "massacre" on the southern border town of Naqoura.

The group said it targeted the Shlomi and Goren settlements in response to the attacks on civilians and especially the Israeli strikes on Naqoura and Tayr Harfa that killed Hezbollah and Amal paramedics.

The British Embassy has delivered 60 tons of Land Rover spare parts and tyres to the Lebanese Army.

The British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell oversaw the handover Wednesday at the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Logistics Base in Kfarshima.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Thursday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut.

Meloni is on a two-day visit to Lebanon during which she will meet some Lebanese officials and visit Italian peacekeepers based in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel.

A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns have grown about further escalation along the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been displaced by the violence.

Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in southern Lebanon late Wednesday, including paramedics who were preparing to respond to the first strike, the state-run National News Agency said.

That raises the number of people killed by Israeli strikes Wednesday to 16, after an overnight attack hit a different paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group, killing seven of the group's members.

The Free Patriotic Movement on Wednesday called on Hezbollah to “do everything to spare civilians across Lebanon” the threat of “coming under Israeli bombardment,” a day after residents of the southern border town of Rmeish accused Hezbollah of trying to fire rockets at Israel from their town.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the British Embassy in Beirut launched its ‘Ambassador For A Day’ (AFAD) competition, now jointly with the Embassy of Canada to Lebanon. AFAD winners will get to shadow an Ambassador in Lebanon for one day, to see first-hand how girls can become leaders and advocates for change.

Each winner will be paired with an Ambassador or head of a U.N. Agency in Lebanon to spend a day with them and their team, and be invited as Guests of Honour to a ceremony hosted by the British and Canadian embassies. "This promises to be an unforgettable opportunity to build skills in diplomacy, confidence, and leadership," the British Embassy in Beirut said in a statement.

Hezbollah’s media relations department on Wednesday denied as “false and tendentious” the reports that said that Hezbollah fighters had tried to fire rockets at Israel from the southern border town of Rmeish.