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.

A war monitor said Israeli air strikes Friday on Syria's Aleppo province killed at least 42 including 36 Syrian soldiers, the deadliest toll for the Syrian army since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war there broke out in 2011, targeting army positions as well as Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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.

The Israeli army will “enter into Lebanon” after finishing the Rafah operation, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation has quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying.

Paris is exerting efforts in many directions in the region in a bid to contain the explosive situations and “weaken the possibilities of a broad war starting from south Lebanon’s front,” a diplomatic source in Paris said.

The head of Hezbollah’s Coordination and Liaison Committee, Wafiq Safa, told Emirati officials during his latest visit to the UAE that his leadership is willing to halt the fighting on Lebanon’s southern front, a media report said.

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.