Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli drone Sunday, without saying where, after Lebanon state media reported heavy Israeli strikes across the country targeting branches of a financial institution linked to the group.

With U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Monday amid major escalation in Lebanon, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that this visit is "the last chance before the U.S. elections to reach a solution" in the country.

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that the military was stepping up its strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

The Lebanese Army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday on their vehicle in southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment on that from the Israeli military, which said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day and continued ground operations there.

Israeli airstrikes were targeting Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday night, after the Israeli army warned that it would target Hezbollah's al-Qard al-Hassan financial institution in Haret Hreik, Shiyyah, Ghobeiri, Choueifat, Tahwitat al-Ghadir and Burj al-Barajneh.

The National News Agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, many of them targeting al-Qard al-Hassan. Other strikes hit the association in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and in the country's south, NNA added.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has been residing in Tehran after fleeing Lebanon on an Iranian plane over two weeks ago, the UAE-based Erem News outlet reported, quoting an anonymous Iranian source.

Responding to criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Likud party that he failed to condemn a Hezbollah drone attack against the prime minister’s home in Caesarea for reasons of “petty politics,” Benny Gantz’s National Unity party called on the premier to “stop dealing in press statements and embarrassing videos.”

Hassan Alik, fleeing escalating violence in the Israel-Hezbollah war, left Lebanon on Saturday aboard a ship to avoid Beirut's airport, which he feared "could be bombed" at any moment.

Iran's United Nations mission said that Lebanon's Hezbollah, armed and financed by Tehran, was behind a drone attack on the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at northern Israel, including at a military base near the city of Haifa on Saturday after the Israeli army reported a barrage of projectiles launched from Lebanon.