The Lebanese state has no option left but to seek a humanitarian truce for Eid al-Fitr, after the failure of efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.

President Joseph Aoun will not accept that Hezbollah "seize control of the decision to make peace, dictating its form, conditions, and timing," after it had controlled the decision to wage war, informed official sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has wondered whether Hezbollah's ministers "still represent the party in the government after the cabinet declared its military and security wings banned."

The line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the coast of southern Lebanon, as residents of areas bombarded in the Israel-Hezbollah war poured into the ancient city of Sidon in search of safety.

President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday said he is clinging to the initiative he has launched to end the Israeli war on Lebanon.

Sara Saleh and her family fled wearing their pyjamas on Wednesday when Israel's military said it would strike a central Beirut building near the school-turned-shelter where they had been staying.

Several other strikes, however, came without warning, jolting terrified residents in the middle of the night and early morning and killing at least 12 people.

Gila Pahima returned to Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel last spring, 18 months after its population had been evacuated because of Hezbollah rocket fire. Now air raid sirens are again sounding around the clock as the boom of missiles and interceptors echoes overhead.

"I feel like we're in constant war," she said. "You feel like you're on a battlefield all day."

Hezbollah said Wednesday it had targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers near the southern border towns of Aitaroun, Odaisseh, Maroun al-Ras, Mays al-Jabal, Taybeh and Markaba, with artillery shells, rockets and attack drones.

The clashes had prevented Israeli troops from advancing into Lebanese territories, especially from the border town of khiam, one of the closest points to the Litani River, but troops were advancing Wednesday into the southern border towns of Halta and Kfarshouba, media reports said.

France’s special envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking to the France Info radio station Wednesday, said the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah "bears full responsibility for the resumption of fighting in Lebanon" but "Israel’s response has been disproportionate and counterproductive, as it unites various actors against Israel."

He criticized Israel for mass evacuation orders that have driven the displacement of more 1 million people in Lebanon and for spurning offers by the Lebanese government to enter into negotiations.

Israeli strikes and shelling targeted overnight into Wednesday several regions in south and east Lebanon, as Israel vowed "big surprises" and escalation.

In the south, strikes targeted Deir al-Zahrani, a hezbollah-affiliated health center in Kherbet Selem, Nabatieh, Tyre, Arab Salim, Kfartebnit, Shawkin-Zebdine, Harouf, Kafra, Burj al-Shamali, Bayt Yahoun, Burj Qalaway, Mayfadoun, Dweir, Shaqra, al-Jmayjmeh, al-Sultanieh, Shebaa, al-Litani, al-Kherdali, al-Abbasiyyah, Deir Qanoun, and Srifa, killing at least 6 and wounding at least 16.