Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday stressed that “in the face of the systematic and dangerous Israeli escalation,” Lebanon “can only stress its right to defend its land, sovereignty and dignity with all means available.”

“We have informed brotherly and friendly countries that we are advocates of peace not war, because we are seeking sustainable stability through regaining the occupied parts of our dear south and compelling the Israeli enemy to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 with all its stipulations,” Mikati said, during a visit to the Army Command on the occasion of Army Day.

Hezbollah targeted Friday Israeli soldiers in the Dhaira post with artillery shells and a post in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills, as it resumed its operations against Israel, three days after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander.

Israeli drones meanwhile raided the southern towns of Rab Tlatine and Dhaira.

Free Patriotic movement chief Jebran Bassil said the FPM cannot stand idly by as Israel strikes Beirut and kills children.

Bassil's comment, late Thursday, came two days after an Israeli air strike killed a Hezbollah top commander in Haret Hreik. The raid on the Beirut suburb, an overcrowded residential area, killed siblings Amira and Hassan Fadlallah as well as three women and injured dozens of civilians.

A Syrian family of four were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their house in the southern village of Shamaa in the Tyre district.

A mother and her three children were killed as Israeli warplanes targeted their house, local media reports said. Several others were injured in the strike.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday that the group was bound to respond to Israel's killing of its top military commander Fouad Shukur, saying his death and that of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "crossed" red lines.

"You do not know what red lines you crossed," he said, addressing Israel during a speech broadcast at Shukur's funeral.

Israel has communicated a “stern warning” to Hezbollah through Western and regional intermediaries following the recent assassination of top commander Fouad Shukur that any massive attack on Israeli civilians will lead to war, Israeli sources told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“Israel intends to target fighters rather than combat-supporting infrastructure and urges Hezbollah to adopt a similar focus,” the sources added.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defense Secretary John Healey arrived Thursday in Beirut following a trip to Qatar.

They met with Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib following their arrival before heading to the Grand Serail for talks with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has sent a letter to dozens of foreign ministers, calling on them to demand “an immediate cessation of Hezbollah’s attacks, its withdrawal to north of the Litani River, and its disarmament in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.”

“Israel is not interested in an all-out war,” he continues, “but the only way to prevent it is the immediate implementation of Resolution 1701.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday described Israel’s deadly strike on Haret Hreik as “a strike on initiatives, pacification efforts and understandings.”

“We will continue to work to rescue our country and protect our society from any danger,” Mikati added, during an emergency cabinet session tackling the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs and its repercussions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding the “threat” posed by Hezbollah, the Pentagon said, hours after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander Fouad Shukur in a rare strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“They discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” the readout said without referring to the strike on Shukur and the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an operation also blamed on Israel.