The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week as the U.S. positions warships to try to keep fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon from escalating into a wider war in the Middle East.

While the Wasp has the capability to assist in the evacuation of civilians if full-scale war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanon border, that's not the primary reason it was rotated in, a U.S. official said. "It's about deterrence," the official said.

Western diplomatic sources did not sense a serious desire from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for an all-out war on Lebanon during his latest visit to Washington, a media report said on Friday.

“Despite the public threats, the majority of which are for consumption and are targeted at the Israeli interior, there was consensus with the U.S. officials that although the situation is unbearable on the northern front, and although the war’s goals are legitimate from an Israeli viewpoint, there is no ability to achieve them without triggering a regional confrontation, not to mention the strategic damages that will affect Israel,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported.

The military indications on the Lebanese-Israeli border do not suggest that there is “something unconventional” that is being prepared by Israel, “at least in the foreseeable future,” a media report said.

"The intensive (Israeli) exercises are only aimed at upping the preparedness of an exhausted army, after months of fighting in Gaza, and the declared transportation of combat units from the Strip to the border with Lebanon has not yet reached an alarming level,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Friday.

Hezbollah targeted Friday surveillance equipment in Birkat Risha in north Israel, a day after it announced four of its fighters had been killed.

Israeli artillery meanwhile shelled the outskirts of the southern coastal town of al-Naqoura, and warplanes raided a home in Shihin in the Tyre district.

A large-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah is likely to break out in the next several weeks if Israel and Hamas fail to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, U.S. intelligence indicates.

The Israeli army and Hezbollah “have drafted battle plans and are in the process of trying to procure additional weapons,” two senior U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence told U.S. news portal Politico.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil will visit Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday, a local newspaper and an FPM MP said.

Pro-Hezbollah daily al-Akhbar reported Friday that Bassil will present to Berri a suggestion for the presidential consultations and dialogue.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met with Jamaa Islamiya chief Sheikh Mohammad Takkoush, Hezbollah said.

The meeting “tackled the latest political and security developments in Lebanon and Palestine,” a Hezbollah statement said.

Hezbollah said it fired "dozens" of rockets Thursday at a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon, announcing four of its fighters had been killed.

Fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah have risen in recent weeks as threats have intensified between the sides, which have traded regular cross-border fire since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military said Thursday that it killed a Hezbollah member who was involved in firing explosive drones into Israel.

The Israeli army posted a video of Thursday’s drone strike that killed the Hezbollah member while riding a motorcycle in the village of Sohmor in West Bekaa.

Paris is "extremely concerned" about fighting on Lebanon's border with Israel, France's foreign ministry said Thursday, calling on "all sides to exercise the greatest restraint.".l