U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will visit Lebanon this week in an attempt to contain escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, media reports said.

Lebanon has been on a knife's edge since a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs last week killed Hezbollah's top military commander, just hours before the assassination, blamed on Israel, of Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

An Israeli drone targeted Tuesday a car on the Beit Yahoun - Baraachit road as Hezbollah attacked surveillance equipment in Misgav Am and groups of soldiers in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills and in the Mattat barracks in northern Israel.

Israeli tanks meanwhile shelled a house in the southern border town of Abbasiyyeh while artillery bombed the outskirts of al-Naqoura, Tayrharfa and Zebqine. Israeli warplanes had raided overnight the southern border towns of Mays al-Jabal and Marwahin.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged Canadians to leave Lebanon, warning of the risk of escalating regional conflict between Israel and others, including Hezbollah.

"We see that the risk of escalation is real," he said Monday at a press conference. "We're encouraging and asking all Canadians to please leave Lebanon while there are commercial routes available."

Lebanon's crisis-battered health care system is now preparing for the possibility of a devastating wider conflict with Israel, the country's health minister told The Associated Press in an interview.

Israel's military and Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah have traded strikes since the current war in Gaza began, but tensions have escalated since an Israeli strike in a Beirut suburb killed a top Hezbollah commander last month. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate.

A 5.5 earthquake hit central Syria late Monday, with the shock felt in neighboring Lebanon, official media in both countries said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday said that “diplomatic contacts are active in several directions to halt the Israeli threats against Lebanon and reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that he had wanted to attack Lebanon as early as October 11, 2023.

Hezbollah is “calculating its steps very well” as to its anticipated response to the Israeli airstrike on Dahieh that killed its military chief Fouad Shukur and six other people, an influential figure close to Hezbollah said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is ready to "immediately call" for presidential consultations, if all concerned parties are ready to attend.

Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that he separates between the ongoing war with Israel and the election of a president and that he is "totally ready" to call for a dialogue or consultations but that other parties are playing for time by refusing his initiative.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has warned to retaliate "in a way that hasn't been done before" if Iran and Hezbollah attack Israel.

Gallant said Sunday, as he visited a military base, that Israel is fighting for its existence and that Iran and Hezbollah are threatening to harm Israel "in ways they have not done before."