Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages.

After Hamas militants launched an unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon's southern border has seen escalating tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration.

Faced with an increasing funding crunch, the United Nations will cut the number of refugee families receiving cash assistance in Lebanon by nearly a third next year, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday.

Due to "significant funding reductions," UNHCR and the World Food Program will give monthly cash aid to 88,000 fewer families in 2024 than in 2023, UNHCR spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled said.

Farmer Ghassan Hassan and his laborers have been toiling tirelessly to harvest olives in fields near Lebanon's southern border, undeterred by nearby Israeli bombings and the whirr of surveillance aircraft.

Olive harvesting is a main source of income for villagers, but this year the season has coincided with tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges between Israeli troops and Hezbollah as the Israel-Hamas war rages in Gaza.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday that Lebanon "doesn't need a war" with Israel and warned against a regional escalation as Israel bombards Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon's southern border has seen near daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel from the Palestinian territory on October 7.

Hezbollah on Thursday said its fighters carried out a simultaneous attack against 19 Israeli military posts along the tense Lebanon-Israel border, in the group's fiercest escalation against Israel since October 8 and on the eve of an anticipated speech by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the Israel-Hamas war and the border clashes.

Hezbollah said the attacks in which mortar fire and antitank missiles were used coincided with two suicide drone attacks on the main Israeli post in the occupied Shebaa Farms. Media reports said Israeli helicopters were seen transporting a large number of casualties from the site.

Hezbollah attacked Thursday the headquarters of the Israeli Zebdine's brigade in the Shebaa Farms with two suicide drones loaded with explosives, after it simultaneously targeted Israeli army posts along the border with Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel shelled Khallat al-Mahafer near the southern town of Adaisseh, the outskirts of Ramya, Blat, Abou Laban near Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, al-Jebbayn, and al-Naqoura.

Caretaker Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi visited Thursday Sidon, Nabatieh and Tyre, in a show of solidarity with the south as Hezbollah and Israel traded cross-border fire on the border.

"Activating the emergency plan in all governorates is necessary and the goal is not to scare people but to reassure them,” Mawlawi said from Sidon.

The time has become “appropriate for speaking” and Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s anticipated speech on Friday will carry “surprises,” sources close to Hezbollah said.

Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Thursday stressed that it is his party’s “national, religious and humanitarian responsibility” to “continue the battle against the Israeli enemy, in order to exhaust, weaken and defeat it.”

Two Lebanese shepherds who were caught in crossfire during clashes on the Lebanon-Israel border were found dead Thursday, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force on the border said.

The Lebanese army had called UNIFIL in to help evacuate the two men Wednesday evening after they were reported injured but had to call off the search “due to the darkness and presence of land mines in the area,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said. He said Thursday morning that the men’s bodies had been found.