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.

President Joseph Aoun called Wednesday for unity and solidarity and the rejection of division and sectarian provocation, hours after Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut and killed ten people in other neighborhoods of the city.

Israel's military claimed the building in Bashoura was being used by Hezbollah to store "millions of dollars intended to finance its activities," without providing evidence. An apartment in the building was hit last week, and the building had also been targeted in the 2024 war.

An Israeli strike on Wednesday hit a car in the center of Sidon, southern Lebanon's largest city, killing two people, including a civil defense rescuer, and wounding another.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the strike hit near the city's civil defense headquarters and the seaside road, where many displaced people are sleeping in their cars.

Lebanon said Israel struck central Beirut early Wednesday without warning, killing at least twelve people, as the Israeli military announced it was targeting the country's south.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said two strikes in the early hours of Wednesday hit an apartment in the central Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood, a densely populated area close to the government's headquarters and several embassies.

Israel said late Tuesday it had struck sites "throughout Lebanon," targeting what it called Hezbollah rocket launching infrastructure after a series of air raid sirens in northern Israel.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Tuesday that Hezbollah is in a position of "legitimate defense" in the battle against Israel, "defending the land, rejecting surrender, and protecting the nation's existence and independence."

"The high level of preparation for the battle was characterized by the ambiguity surrounding our capabilities, their limits, and their deployment, the lack of need for fixed positions, and the flexibility for resistance fighters to move from anywhere in Lebanon to the front lines to engage the enemy," Qassem said in a letter to Hezbollah's fighters.

President Joseph Aoun made two phone calls Tuesday to Minister of National Defense Michel Menassa and Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal, offering his condolences for the death of three soldiers in the South as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the Zibdine-Nabatieh road.