Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon Saturday after Hezbollah attacked several Israeli army posts.

The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border. He threatened a further escalation as Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas, Hezbollah's ally, nears the one-month mark.

Progressive Socialist Party former leader Walid Jumblat has described Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on the military developments in Gaza and south Lebanon as “very realistic.”

“He was very realistic in describing the plight of the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation of the past 75 years, in addition to the situation in Gaza and the bombardment of civilians,” Jumblat said in an interview with al-Jadeed television.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday met in Jordan with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

During the meeting, Mikati stressed “the priority of working for a ceasefire in Gaza to halt the continuous Israeli aggression there, and also working on stopping the Israeli aggression against south Lebanon,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Hezbollah on Saturday attacked the al-Jirdah, Hadb al-Bustan, Jal al-Alam and Malkia Israeli military posts on Lebanon’s border.

Israel retaliated with an airstrike on the al-Labbouneh area in Naqoura and artillery shelling on the Lebanese border areas of Naqoura, Yarin, Tayr Harfa, Dhayra, Shihin and Aitaroun.

The U.S. Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder has said that he does not think Hezbollah would escalate the fighting with Israel, even after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed threats to both Israel and the United States.

"A broader regional conflict has been deterred," Ryder told the BBC.

The remaining residents of Israel's northern settlement of Kiryat Shmona, those who have not fled rising cross-border fire from south Lebanon, have said that they are ready for whatever happens.

The Israel-Lebanon border has seen escalating tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, since Palestinian militants of Hezbollah ally Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel on October 7, stoking fears of a wider regional conflict.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that Hezbollah "should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict," shortly after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a much-hyped speech in which he addressed threats to both Israel and the United States over the ongoing war in Gaza and the skirmishes in south Lebanon.

"This has the potential of becoming a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon than 2006," Jean-Pierre warned.

Julia Norman, an associate professor of politics and international relations at University College London, has said that both U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah -- two actors who “are going to be very influential on how the conflict moves from this point” -- have both offered signals Friday against a wider war.

“That’s not to say it won’t, but the messaging today from both seemed to be ... trying to operate within a sense of restraint and to not have this ripple out even further,” she said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea rejected anew the choice of war on the eve of a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the Israel-Hamas war.

"War does not lead to any actual result," Geagea told LBCI. "We need a real solution to the Palestinian cause." He added that the Axis of Resistance has done nothing that served the cause. "It's not about speeches, but rather about giving the Palestinians their rights back," he said.

Celebratory gunshots rang out over Beirut as thousands packed into a square in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs on Friday to watch a televised speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

It was Nasrallah's first public remarks since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Palestinian militants deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel.