It was a year ago when Jomana Siddiqui visited Lebanon, where her father was born — and is now buried. She planned to return there soon; this time, she thought, she would take her two teenage daughters.

Instead, Siddiqui, who lives in California, now worries about relatives there. As she watches from afar the violence and the recent escalation in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, Siddiqui thinks about the people she met during her visit, the kindness and generosity she encountered.

Israel launched a new air and ground offensive in northern Gaza Sunday, hours after pounding Beirut's southern suburbs in the heaviest bombardment since it stepped up its pursuit of Hezbollah last month.

The intensified campaign on two fronts, including an overnight strike on a Gaza mosque that killed 19, came as Israel remained on high alert ahead of memorial events to mark the surprise attack a year ago that triggered the ongoing war.

An Israeli strike that targeted a local firefighting center in Baraachit overnight killed ten firefighters, bringing to 118 the number of rescuers killed in a year, with more than 50 killed by Israeli fire in just a week.

The health ministry said more people were buried under the rubble and the death toll may rise.

Hezbollah is currently being run by a “collective leadership,” sources informed on Hezbollah’s situation told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, in response to reports about the successor of the group’s slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned Monday that "Israeli aggression" was pushing the region towards the "abyss" of full-blown war, during a visit to Lebanon.

"The Israeli aggression... which started in Gaza and now has continued into Lebanon is pushing the whole region into the abyss of full-blown regional war," Safadi told a news conference in Beirut.

U.S. Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla visited Israel for "a situational assessment" focused on security challenges coming from Iran and Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Monday.

"General Kurilla's visit focused on the current security issues, with an emphasis on Iran and the northern front," a military statement said, without specifying when he had arrived in Israel.

Hezbollah targeted areas near Haifa twice on Monday with rockets.

The group said early Monday that it targeted an Israeli military base near the northern city of Haifa. It later fired a "large rocket salvo" at areas north of Haifa in the afternoon.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in a south Lebanon border village on Monday, as the Israeli army said it had deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon.

Hezbollah fighters "bombed... a gathering of Israeli forces in the Maroun al-Ras park with a rocket salvo", the group said in a statement, after announcing separately it had targeted several areas of northern Israel and military positions across the border.

Hezbollah said its fighters pushed away Israeli troops that attempted to storm into a Lebanese border village early Sunday, in the latest clashes after Israel announced ground operations earlier this week.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for "pressure on Israel" for a ceasefire as a new Israeli strike hit the capital's southern suburbs on Sunday.

Mikati said he backed U.S. and French efforts for a truce, as the official National News Agency reported a strike south of Beirut.