Hezbollah denied that it has a presence inside the United Arab Emirates, after Emirati authorities announced they had arrested at least five members of a "terrorist network" linked to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran.

Hezbollah said Friday it had targeted Israeli soldiers in six south Lebanon villages, in a series of statements, as Israeli ground forces attempt to push into southern Lebanon.

After visiting Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa affirmed that "the United States is concerned with peace prevailing in Lebanon and for it to be independent and free from war."

UAE authorities have arrested at least five members of a "terrorist network" linked to Iran and Lebanese group Hezbollah, state media said Friday.

President Joseph Aoun said a proposed framework to halt fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah was "still on the table", as he hosted French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday.

Lebanon was pulled into the regional war on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets toward neighboring Israel in response to the killing of its ally Iran's supreme leader in Israeli-U.S. attacks.

Israel carried out strikes on towns in southern Lebanon, causing multiple injuries, state media reported on Friday.

Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16.

An Israeli warplane broke the sound barrier over Beirut on Friday morning, state media said, as AFP journalists heard loud booms reverberate across the city and in distant mountains.

Lebanon's state electricity company said on Thursday that an Israeli attack knocked out power to a region of southern Lebanon.

Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Thursday that Israel has killed 500 Hezbollah fighters in its current war against the group, among them 200 from the elite Radwan unit. He gave no further evidence.

The claim came as the death toll in Lebanon topped 1,000.