The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lebanese Parliament chaired by MP Fadi Alameh has visited the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, accompanied by the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Dorothee Klaus. The Director of the Office of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Abdel Nasser al-Ayyi, was also in attendance.

"This visit by MPs underscores Lebanon's support for the sustained work of UNRWA and its crucial humanitarian role in delivering essential services to Palestine refugees in Lebanon, and as such contributes to its stability. This comes amidst an unprecedented financial crisis looming over UNRWA due to the freeze of funding of 16 donors nations. Without funding to UNRWA resuming, UNRWA operations across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, will face comprised operations after March," UNRWA said in a statement.

U.S. administration and intelligence officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon that could be launched in the late spring or early summer if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel, CNN has quoted senior administrations officials and officials familiar with the intelligence as saying.

Austria's foreign minister on Thursday urged Israel and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March.

The Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty, said Alexander Schallenberg, speaking after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut.

Hezbollah fired Thursday volleys of Katyusha rockets at Eilon in northern Israel in response to the killing of two civilians in Israeli strikes, as warplanes raided Wednesday the towns of Siddiqin and Kafra, also injuring 14 people.

Hezbollah also attacked soldiers in Jal al-Alam with artillery shells, a gathering of Israeli troops on the Cobra Hill and an Israeli post in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

Israeli strikes killed two elderly people in Lebanon's south on Wednesday evening, while Hamas earlier fired a volley of rockets towards northern Israel from Lebanon amid escalating cross-border clashes in recent days.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli army since war erupted between Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group in October, while Palestinian groups in Lebanon have also occasionally claimed attacks.

More than 120 individuals and groups on Wednesday called for a United Nations probe into Israeli attacks on journalists in south Lebanon, where three were killed last year.

An appeal addressed to U.N. rights chief Volker Turk expressed concern over "the Israeli forces' apparent deliberate targeting of journalists and media workers in Lebanon."

There will be no major war between Hezbollah and Israel despite the latest escalation, a Western diplomat has said privately to his interlocutors.

The military wing of Palestinian group Hamas on Wednesday said it fired a volley of rockets towards northern Israel from south Lebanon, amid escalating exchanges at the Lebanon-Israel border in recent days.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli army since war erupted between Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group in October, while Palestinian groups in Lebanon have also occasionally claimed attacks.

Caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim on Wednesday said a newspaper distorted remarks voiced by him about the Lebanese Army’s preparedness.

Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire Wednesday a day after a U.N. official called for an end to the "dangerous cycle of violence", as tensions increased on the border.

An Israeli airstrike targeted the house of Hezbollah commander Ali Wehbe in Bint Jbeil, while Israeli warplanes bombed Beit Leef, Ramyeh, Ainata and al-Khraybeh.