Hezbollah said Tuesday that it targeted a military base in north Israel near Safed twice with salvos of rockets, as Israel pounded Lebanon with air strikes, saying it was targeting the Iran-backed group.

"In defense of Lebanon and its people", Hezbollah targeted "the Dado base" near north Israel's Safed -- the headquarters of the Israeli military's northern command -- with a total of 90 rockets, the Iran-backed group said in two separate statements.

Israel is not eager for a ground invasion of Lebanon, the country's ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said, as Israel carried out deadly strikes on its northern neighbor.

"We had experience in Lebanon in the past. We are not eager to start any ground invasion anywhere," Danon said Tuesday as intensified Israeli strikes stoked fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

Israel's defense minister has accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of failing to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israel after the U.N. chief said Lebanon was becoming a "nightmare" like Gaza following Israeli air strikes.

"Mr Secretary General, the nightmare you speak of, is in fact a reality," Yoav Gallant said in a response to Guterres on X, adding "the reality is that Hezbollah has taken Lebanon hostage, and the U.N. is neither acknowledging their actions, nor fulfilling its fundamental obligation -- preventing Hezbollah attacks and demanding the implementation of Resolution 1701".

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday on the escalating violence in Lebanon, said Slovenia's mission to the U.N., which holds the rotating presidency of the council.

"After consulting with the delegations... the Presidency intends to schedule the briefing on the situation in Lebanon for tomorrow, Wednesday September 25 at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT)," the mission said Tuesday, adding that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would speak at the meeting.

Caretaker foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib has voiced disappointment in President Joe Biden's remarks on the Middle East at the United Nations and expressed hope for greater U.S. diplomacy.

"It was not strong, it is not promising, and it would not solve the Lebanese problem," Bou Habib, who was attending the UN General Assembly Tuesday, told an event of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Britain's foreign ministry said late Tuesday that it was sending military teams to Cyprus as it prepares "contingency plans" for its citizens in Lebanon as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah rages.

"Around 700 UK troops will move to Cyprus in the coming hours," the ministry said, urging British nationals to "leave Lebanon immediately".

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on his Iranian counterpart to use his influence to reduce soaring tensions in Lebanon, the Elysee said.

Meeting President Masoud Pezeshkian, Macron "highlighted the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and use its influence with destabilizing actors," an Elysee statement said, in a clear reference to Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan condemned Israel's "aggression" against Lebanon Wednesday, warning that it is "pushing the region towards all-out war".

The ministers said that stopping the "dangerous escalation under way in the region... begins by halting Israel's aggression in Gaza", in a joint statement issued after a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that Israel's killing of top Hezbollah commanders couldn't bring the Lebanese militant group to its knees.

"Some of the effective and valuable forces of Hezbollah were martyred, which undoubtedly caused damage to Hezbollah, but this was not the sort of damage that could bring the group to its knees," he said in meeting with military personnel and veterans of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Keserwan town of Maaysra Wednesday, killing three people and wounding nine others, the Health Ministry said.

The strikes hit the mountain village north of Beirut for the first time, while Israel said it was carrying out "extensive" strikes on Hezbollah strongholds.